A   SECOND   VISIT 


THE    UIITED    STATES 


NORTH  AMERICA, 


BY  SIR  CHAKLES  IYELL,  F.R.S., 

PRESIDENT    OF   THE    GEOLOGICAL  SOCIETY   OK   LONDON,    AUTHOK    OF    "THE    PHINCIPLES 
OF   GEOLOGV,"   AND   "  TBAVELS   IN   NOKTH  AMERICA." 


IN     TWO     VOLUMES.  ^^"^ 

S'~f" 
VOL.    I. 

NEW    YORK: 

HARPER    &    BROTHERS,    PUBLISHERS. 
LONDON:    JOHN    MURE  AY. 

1849. 


\  (O  • 


CONTENTS 


OF 


THE    FIRST    VOLUME. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAGE 

Voyage  from  Liverpool  to  Halifax. — Gale. — Iceberg. — Drift  Ice  and  Gulf 
Stream. — Coast  of  Newfoundland. — Engine  room  of  Steamer. — Con 
versations  on  Coolies  in  the  West  Indies. — Halifax. — News  of  Judge 
Story's  Death. — Boston. — Success  of  the  Mail  Steam  Packets. — Cus 
tom  House  Officers 13 


CHAPTER  II. 

Boston. — Horticultural  Show  in  Faneuil  Hall. — Review  of  Militia. — 
Peace  Association. — Excursion  to  the  White  Mountains. — Railway 
Traveling. — Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire. — Geology,  Fossils  in  Drift. 
— Submarine  forest. — Wild  Plants  :  Asters,  Solidagos,  Poison  Ivy. — 
Swallows. — Glacial  Grooves. — Rocks  transported  by  Antarctic  Ice. — 
Body  of  a  Whale  discovered  by  an  American  Trader  in  an  Iceberg  .  27 


CHAPTER  III. 

Portland  in  Maine. — Kenriebec  River. — Timber  Trade. — Fossil  Shells  at 
Gardiner. — Augusta  the  Capital  of  Maine. — Legal  Profession:  Advo 
cates  and  Attorneys. — Equality  of  Sects. — Religious  Toleration. — Cal- 
viuiscic  Theology. — Day  of  Doom  .......  41 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

PAGE 

Journey  from  Portland  to  the  White  Mountains. — Plants — Churches, 
School-houses. — Temperance  Hotel. — Intelligence  of  New-Englanders. 
— Climate,  Consumption. — Conway. — Division  of  Property. — Every 
Man  his  own  Tenant. — Autumnal  Tints. — Bears  hybernating. — Willey 
Slide. — Theory  of  Scratches  and  Grooves  on  Rocks. — Scenery. — 
Waterfalls  and  Ravines. — The  Notch. — Forest  Trees  and  Mountain 
Plants.— Fabyan's  Hotel.— Echo 53 

CHAPTER  V. 

Ascent  of  Mount  Washington. — Mr.  Oakes. — Zones  of  distinct  Vegeta 
tion. — Belt  of  Dwarf  Firs. — Bald  Region  and  Arctic  Flora  on  Sum 
mit. — View  from  Summit. — Migration  of  Plants  from  Arctic  Re 
gions. — Change  of  Climate  since  Glacial  Period. — Granitic  Rocks  0* 
White  Mountains. — Franconia  Notch. — Revival  at  Bethlehem. — Miller- 
ite  Movement. — The  Tabernacle  at  Boston. — Mormons. — Remarks  on 
New  England  Fanaticism  .........  66 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Social  Equality. — Position  of  Servants. — War  with  England. — Coalition 
of  Northern  Democrats,  and  Southern  Slave-owners. — Ostracism  of 
Wealth. — Legislators  paid. — Envy  in  a  Democracy. — Politics  of  the 
Country  and  the  City. — Pledges  at  Elections. — Universal  Suffrage. — 
Adventure  in  a  Stage  Coach. — Return  from  the  White  Mountains. — 
Plymouth  in  New  Hampshire. — Congregational  and  Methodist 
Churches. — Theological  Discussions  of  Fellow  Travelers. — Temper 
ance  Movement. — Post-Office  Abuses. — Lowell  Factories  .  .  .80 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Plymouth,  Massachusetts. — Plymouth  Beach. — Marine  Shells. — Quick 
sand. — Names  of  Pilgrim  Fathers. — Forefathers'  Day. — Pilgrim  Rel 
ics. — Their  Authenticity  considered. — Decoy  Pond. — A  Barn  Travel 
ing. — Excursion  to  Salem. — Museum. — Warrants  for  Execution  of 
Witches. — Causes  of  the  Persecution. — Convert iiou  with  Colored 
Abolitionists. — Comparative  Capacity  of  White  uud  Negro  Kaot-e. — 
Half-Breeds  and  Hybrid  Intellects  .......  93 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

PAGE 

Pretended  Fossil  Sea  Serpent,  or  Zeuglodon,  from  Alabama. — Recent 
Appearance  of  a  Sea  Serpent  in  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence. — In  Norway  in 
1845. — Near  Cape  Ann,  Massachusetts,  1817. — American  Descrip 
tions. — Conjectures  as  to  Nature  of  the  Animal. — Sea  Snake  stranded 
in  the  Orkneys  proved  to  be  a  Shark. — Dr.  Barclay's  Memoir. — Sir 
Everard  Home's  Opinion. — Sea  Serpent  of  Hebrides,  1808. — Reasons 
for  concluding  that  Pontoppidan's  Sea  Snake  was  a  Basking  Shark. — 
Captain  M'Quhae's  Sea  Serpent 107 


CHAPTER  IX. 

Boston. — No  Private  Lodgings. — Boarding-houses. — Hotels. — Effects  of 
the  Climate  on  Health. — Large  Fortunes. — Style  of  Living. — Serv 
ants. — Carriages. — Education  of  Ladies. — Marriages. — Professional 
Incomes. — Protectionist  Doctrines. — Peculiarities  of  Language. — 
Literary  Tastes. — Cost  of  Living. — Alarms  of  Fire  ....  122 


CHAPTER  X. 

Boston. — Blind  Asylum  and  Laura  Briclgeman. — Respect  for  Freedom 
of  Conscience. — Cemetery  of  Mount  Auburn. — Channing's  Cenotaph. — 
Episcopal  Churches. — Unitarian  Congregations. — Eminent  Preach 
ers. — Progress  of  Unitarians  why  slow. — Their  works  reprinted  in 
England. — Nothingarians. — Episcopalian  Asceticism. — Separation  of 
Religion  and  Politics  .  .  133 


CHAPTER  XI. 

Boston. — Whig  Caucus. — Speech  of  Mr.  Webster. — Politics  in  Masachu- 
setts. — Election  of  Governor  and  Representatives. — Thanksgiving  Day 
and  Governor's  Proclamation. — Absence  of  Pauperism. — Irish  Repeal 
Meeting. — New  England  Sympathizer. — Visit  to  a  Free  School. — 
State  Education. — Pay  and  Social  Rank  of  Teachers  — Importance  of 
the  Profession. — Rapid  Progress  and  Effects  of  Educational  Move 
ment. — Popular  Lectures. — Lending  Libraries  .  .  .  .  .141 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

PAGE 

Boston,  Popular  Education,  continued. — Patronage  of  Universities  and 
Science. — Channing  on  Milton. — Milton's  Scheme  of  teaching  the 
Natural  Sciences. — New  England  Free  Schools. — Their  Origin. — First 
Puritan  Settlers  not  illiterate. — Sincerity  of  their  Religious  Faith. — 
Schools  founded  in  Seventeenth  Century  in  Massachusetts. — Discour 
aged  in  Virginia. — Sir  W.  Berkeley's  Letter. — Pastor  Robinson's  Views 
of  Progress  in  Religion. — Organization  of  Congregational  Church 
es. — No  Penalties  for  Dissent. — Provision  made  for  future  Variations 
in  Creeds. — Mode  of  working  exemplified. — Impossibility  of  conceal 
ing  Truths  relating  to  Religion  from  an  educated  Population. — Gain 
to  the  Higher  Classes,  especially  the  Clergy. — New  Theological  Col- 

.  lege. — The  Lower  Orders  not  rendered  indolent,  discontented,  or  ir 
religious  by  Education.  Peculiar  Stimulus  to  Popular  Instruction  in 
the  United  States 155 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

Leaving  Boston  for  the  South. — Railway  Stove. — Fall  of  Snow. — New- 
Haven,  and  Visit  to  Professor  Silliman. — New  York. — Improvements 
in  the  City. — Croton  Waterworks. — Fountains. — Recent  Conflagra 
tion. — New  Churches. — Trinity  Church. — News  from  Europe  of  Con 
verts  to  Rome. — Reaction  against  Tractarians. — Electric  Telegraph, 
its  Progres  in  America. — Morse  and  Wheatstone. — 11,000  Schools  in 
New  York  for  Secular  instruction. — Absence  of  Smoke. — Irish  Voters. 
— Nativism 178 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

New  York  to  Philadelphia. — Scenery  in  New  Jersey. — War  about  Ore 
gon. — Protectionist  Theories. — Income  Tax  and  Repudiation. — Re 
criminations  against  British  Aggrandizement. — Irish  Quarter  and 
fraudulent  Votes. — Washington. — Congress  and  Annexation  of  Texas. 
— General  Cass  for  War. — Winthrop  for  Arbitration. — Inflated  Elo 
quence. — Supreme  Court. — Slavery  in  District  of  Columbia. — 
Museum,  Collection  of  Corals. — Sculpture  from  Palenque. — Conversa 
tions  with  Mr.  Fox. — A  Residence  at  Washington  not  favorable  to  a 
just  Estimate  of  the  United  States. — False  Position  of  Foreign  Diplo 
matists  .  191 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

PAGE 

Washington  to  Richmond. — Legislature  of  Virginia  in  Session. — Substi 
tution  of  White  for  Slave  Labor. — Progress  of  Negro  Instruction ,~ 

-^-SJave-dealers. — Kindness  to  Negroes. — Coal  of  Oolitic  Period  near 
Richmond. — Visit  to  the  Mines. — Upright  Fossil  Trees. — Deep  Shafts, 
and  "Thickness  of  Coal  Seams. — Explosion  of  Gas. — Natural  Coke. — 
Resemblance  of  the  more  modern  Coal-measures  to  old  Carboniferous 
Rocks. — Whites  working  with  free  Negroes  in  the  Mines  .  .  .  205 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

Journey  through  North  Carolina. — Wilmington. — Recent  Fire  and  Pass 
ports  for  Slaves. — Cape  Fear  River  and  Smithfield. — Spanish  Moss, 
and  Uses  of. — Charleston. — Anti-Negro  Feeling. — Passage  from  Mu- 
lattoes  to  Whites. — Law  against  importing  free  Blacks. — Dispute  with 
Massachusetts. — Society  in  Charleston. — Governesses. — War-Panic. — 
Anti-English  Feeling  caused  by  Newspaper  Press. — National  Arbitra 
tion  of  the  Americans. — Dr.  Bachman's  Zoology. — Geographical 
Representation  of  Species. — Rattle-Snakes. — Turkey  Buzzards  .  .218 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

Charleston  to  Savannah. — Beaufort  River,  or  Inland  Navigation  in  South 
Carolina.— Slave  Stealer.—  Cockspur  Island.— Rapid  growth  of  Oysters. 
— Eagle  caught  by  Oyster. — Excursion  from  Savannah  to  Skiddaway 
Island.— Megatherium  and  Mylodon. — Cabbage  Palms,  or  tree  Palmet 
tos. — Deceptive  Appearance  of  Submarine  Forest. — Alligators  swal 
lowing  Flints. — Their  Tenacity  of  Life  when  decapitated. — Grove 
of  Live  Oaks.— Slaves  taken  to  Free  States 230 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

Savannah  to  Darien. — Anti-Slavery  Meetings  discussed. — War  with 
England. — Landing  at  Darien. — Crackers. — Scenery  on  Altamaha 
River. — Negro  Boatmen  singing. — Marsh  Blackbird  in  Rice  Grounds. — 
Hospitality  of  Southern  Planters. — New  Clearing  and  Natural  Rotation 
of  Trees. — Birds. — Shrike  and  Kingfisher. — Excursion  to  St.  Simon's 
Island. — Butler's  Island  and  Negroes. — Stumps  of  Trees  in  Salt 


CONTENTS. 


PAGH 

Marshes  proving  Subsidence  of  Land. — Alligator  seen. — Their  Nests 
and  Habits. — Their  Fear  of  Porpoises. — Indian  Shell  Mound  on  St. 
Simon's  Island. — Date-palm,  Orange,  Lemon,  and  Olive  Trees. — Hur 
ricanes. — Visit  to  outermost  Barrier  Island. — Sea  Shells  on  Beach. — 
Negro  Maid-Servants 240 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

Rivers  made  turbid  by  the  Clearing  of  Forests. — Land  rising  in  successive 
Terraces. — Origin  of  these. — Bones  of  extinct  Quadrupeds  in  Lower 
Terrace. — Associated  Marine  Shells. — Digging  of  Brunswick  Canal. — 
Extinction  of  Megatherium  and  its  Contempories. — Dying  out  of  rare 
Species  — Gordonia  Pubescens. — Life  of  Southern  Planters. — Negroes 
on  a  Rice  Plantation. — Black  Children. — Separate  Negro  Houses.-^ 
Work   exacted. — Hospital  for    Negroes. — Food    and    Dress. — Black/ 
Driver. — Prevention  of  Crimes. — African  Tom. — Progress  of  Negroes  j 
in  Civilization. — Conversions  to  Christianity. — Episcopalian,  Baptist, 
and  Methodist  Missionaries. — Amalgamation  and  Mixture  of  Races     .  256 


Library,  j 


A  SECOND  VISIT 

TO 

THE    UNITED    STATES, 


CHAPTER  I. 

Voyage  from  Liverpool  to  Halifax. — Gale. — Iceberg. — Drift  Ice  and  Gulf 
Stream. — Coast  of  Newfoundland. — Engine-room  of  Steamer. — Conver 
sations  on  Coolies  in  the  West  Indies. — Halifax. — News  of  Judge  Story's 
Death. — Boston. — Success  of  the  Mail  Steam  Packets. — Custom  House 
Officers. 

Sept.  4.  1845.  —  EMBARKED  with  my  wife  at  Liverpool,  in 
the  Britannia,  one  of  the  Cunard  line  of  steam-ships,  bound  for 
Halifax  and  Boston.  On  leaving  the  wharf,  we  had  first  been 
crammed,  with  a  crowd  of  passengers  and  heaps  of  luggage,  into 
a  diminutive  steamer,  which  looked  like  a  toy  by  the  side  of  the 
larger  ship,  of  1200  tons,  in  which  we  were  to  cross  the  ocean. 
I  was  reminded,  however,  by  a  friend,  that  this  small  craft  was 
more  than  three  times  as  large  as  one  of  the  open  caravels  of 
Columbus,  in  his  first  voyage,  which  was  only  1 5  tons  burden, 
and  without  a  deck.  It  is,  indeed,  marvelous  to  reflect  on  the 
daring  of  the  early  adventurers;  for  Frobisher,  in  1576,  mado 
his  way  from  the  Thames  to  the  shores  of  Labrador  with  two 
small  barks  of  20  and  25  tons  each,  not  much  surpassing  in  size 
the  barge  of  a  man-of-war  ;  and  Sir  Humphry  Gilbert  crossed  to 
Newfoundland,  in  1583,  in  a  bark  of  10  tons  only,  which  was 
lost  in  a  tempest  on  the  return  voyage. 


14  GALE.  [CHAP.  I. 

The  morning  after  we  set  sail  we  found  ourselves  off  Cork,  in 
the  midst  of  the  experimental  squadron  of  steamers  and  ships  of 
the  line,  commanded  by  Sir  Hyde  Parker.  They  had  been  out 
several  weeks  performing  their  nautical  evolutions,  and  we  had 
the  amusement  of  passing  close  to  the  largest  ships  of  the  fleet — 
the  St.  Vincent  and  the  Superb.  Our  captain  fired  a  salute  as 
we  went  under  the  batteries  of  the  last  of  these — the  Admiral's 
ship. 

After  sailing  at  the  rate  of  more  than  200  miles  a  day  for 
four  days,  our  progress  was  retarded,  Sept.  8,  by  an  equinoctial 
gale,  which  came  in  from  the  southwest,  and.  blowing  for  twelve 
hours,  raised  such  a  sea,  that  we  only  made  four  miles  an  hour. 

Another  gale  of  still  greater  violence  came  on  six  days  after 
ward,  on  the  night  of  the  14th,  when  the  ship  was  running  at 
the  rate  of  ten  and  a  half  miles  an  hour,  along  the  eastern  edge 
of  the  Great  Baifk.  The  wind  had  been  N.E.,  when  suddenly, 
and  in  an  instant,  it  blew  from  the  N.W.  I  was  in  my  berth 
below  when  this  squall  struck  the  vessel,  and  supposed  that  we 
had  run  upon  some  floating  timber  or  an  iceberg.  We  felt  the 
ship  heel  as  if  falling  over.  On  inquiry  next  day  of  the  captain, 
and  the  only  passenger  who  was  on  deck  at  the  time  of  this  con 
cussion,  I  learnt  that  they  saw  a  cloud  of  white  foam  advancing 
toward  them  on  the  surface  of  the  sea  from  the  N.W.,  like  a 
line  of  surf  on  a  beach.  The  captain  had  time  to  get  the  sails 
hauled  half  up,  all  except  the  top-sail,  which  was  torn  to  pieces, 
when  the  advancing  line  of  foam  reached  the  ship,  at  which 
moment  there  was  some  vivid  lightning,  which  the  passenger 
thought  was  the  cause  of  the  blow  resembling  the  stroke  of  a 
solid  body  against  the  steamer.  When  the  wind  first  filled  the 
sails  in  an  opposite  direction,  it  seemed  as  if  the  masts  must  give 
way.  All  hands  had  been  called  on  deck,  and  the  men  went 
into  the  rigging  to  furl  the  sails  with  the  utmost  order  and  cool 
ness.  In  a  few  minutes  the  wind  had  veered  rapidly  round  the 
compass,  from  N.W.  to  N.E.,  and  then  went  on  to  blow  from 
this,  the  old  quarter  again,  a  perfect  hurricane  for  twenty-three 
hours  ;  the  spray  being  carried  mast  high,  so  that  there  was  a 
complete  mingling  of  sea  and  sky.  We  could  never  tell  whether 


CHAP.  I.]  POKPOISES.  15 

the  cloud  which  enveloped  us  consisted  chiefly  of  the  foam  "blown 
off  the  crests  of  the  waves,  or  of  the  driving  mist  and  rain  which 
were  falling  during  the  greater  part  of  the  day. 

Among  our  passengers  were  some  experienced  American  sea- 
eaptains,  who  had  commanded  vessels  of  their  own  round  Cape 
Horn,  and,  being  now  for  the  first  time  in  a  steamer  at  sea,  were 
watching  with  professional  interest  the  Britannia's  behavior  in 
the  storm.  They  came  to  the  conclusion,  that  one  of  these  vessels, 
well  appointed,  with  a  full  crew,  skilled  officers,  and  good  en 
gineers,  was  safer  than  any  sailing  packet ;  being  light  in  their 
rigging,  and  having  small  sails,  they  run  no  danger  of  having 
their  masts  carried  away  in  a  stiff  breeze,  and  the  power  of  steam 
enables  them  always  to  make  way,  so  as  to  steer  and  keep  their 
head  to  the  wind,  on  which  safety  depends.  It  sometimes  hap 
pens,  when  a  wave  strikes  a  sailing  vessel  in  a  squall,  that  before 
she  has  time  to  work  round  and  get  her  head  to  windward,  an 
other  wave  breaks  over  and  swamps  her,  and  to  such  an  accident 
the  loss  of  several  packets  between  the  United  States  and  Liver 
pool  is  attributed. 

I  observed  that  there  was  no  lightning  conductor  in  our  ship  ; 
and  it  seems  to  be  the  prevailing  belief  that  steam-boats  are  less 
liable  than  other  vessels  to  suffer  from  lightning,  although  the 
steamers  in  the  royal  navy  are  fitted  with  copper-wire  rope  con 
ductors. 

My  chief  amusement,  when  the  weather  was  moderate,  was 
to  watch  the  porpoises  (Delphinus  phoccena)  gamboling,  rolling, 
and  tumbling  in  the  water,  and  yet  keeping  up  with  our  ship 
when  she  was  running  eleven  miles  an  hour.  They  were  very 
numerous,  usually  following  each  other  in  a  line  at  short  intervals, 
each  individual  about  four  or  five  feet  long,  their  backs  of  a  blue- 
ish-black  color,  swimming  without  effort,  and  seeming  scarcely  to 
move  either  their  fins  or  tail.  Occasionally  they  dive,  and  then 
re-appear  to  take  breath  at  a  great  distance,  often  leaping  up  out 
of  the  water,  so  as  to  display  their  silvery  white  bodies.  The 
only  other  living  creatures  which  attracted  our  attention,  when 
still  far  from  land,  were  enormous  flights  of  sea-birds,  which  filled 
the  air,  or  were  seen  swimming  on  the  ocean  near  the  shoal  called 


16  ICEBERG.  [CHAP.  I. 

the  Flemish  Cap,  lat.  47°  35'  N.  ;  long.  44°  3.2'  W.  They 
feed  on  fish  peculiar  to  these  comparatively  shallow  parts  of  the 
Atlantic. 

But  the  event  of  chief  interest  to  me  on  this  voyage  AV.-IS  be 
holding,  for  the  first  time  in  my  life,  a  large  iceberg.  .  It  came 
in  sight  on  the  13th  Sept.,  a  season  when  they  are  rarely  met 
with  here.  We  were  nearing  the  Great  Bank,  which  was  about 
eight  miles  distant,  the  air  foggy,  so  that  I  could  only  see  it 
dimly  through  the  telescope,  although  it  was  as  white  as  snow, 
and  supposed  by  the  officers  to  be  about  200  feet  high.  The 
foggy  and  chilly  state  of  the  atmosphere  had  led  the  captain  to 
suspect  the  proximity  of  floating  ice,  and  half-hourly  observations 
had  been  made  on  the  temperature  of  the  sea,  but  the  water  was 
always  at  49°  F.,  as  is  usual  in  this  month.  We  were  then  in 
lat.  47°  37'  N.,  long.  45°  39'  W.,  our  latitude  corresponding  to 
that  of  the  Loire  in  France. 

To  a  geologist,  accustomed  to  seek  for  the  explanation  of  vari 
ous  phenomena  in  the  British  Isles  and  Northern  Europe,  espe 
cially  the  transportation  of  huge  stones  to  great  distances,  and  the 
polishing  and  grooving  of  the  surfaces  of  solid  rocks,  by  referring 
to  the  agency  of  icebergs  at  remote  periods,  when  much  of  what 
is  now  land  in  the  northern  hemisphere  was  still  submerged,  it  is 
no  small  gratification  to  see,  for  the  first  time,  one  of  these  icy 
masses  floating  so  far  to  the  southward.  I  learnt  from  our  cap 
tain  that  last  year,  June  1844,  he  fell  in  with  an  iceberg  aground 
at  some  distance  from  the  land  ofT  Cape  Race,  on  the  S.E.  point 
of  Newfoundland,  in  lat.  4G°  40'  N.  It  was  of  a  square  shape, 
100  feet  high,  and  had  stranded  in  a  sea  of  some  depth  ;  for  its 
sides  were  steep,  and  soundings  of  fifty  fathoms  were  obtained 
close  to  the  ice.  It  was  seen  at  the  same  spot  ten  days  after 
ward  by  a  brig.  A  military  officer  on  board  also  tells  me  that 
last  year,  when  he  was  in  garrison  in  Newfoundland,  an  iceberg 
continued  aground  in  the  harbor  of  St.  John's  for  a  year,  and 
they  used  to  fire  cannon-balls  at  it  from  the  battery.  There  are, 
indeed,  innumerable  well-authenticated  cases  of  these  islands  of 
floating  ice  having  stranded  on  the* great  oceanic  shoals  S.E.  of 
Newfoundland,  even  in  places  where  the  water  is  no  less  than 


CHAP.  I.]  DRIFTING  OF  ICEBERGS.  17 

100  fathoms  deep,  the  average  depth  over  the  Great  Bank  being 
from  forty  to  fifty  fathoms.  That  they  should  be  arrested  in. 
their  course  is  not;  surprising,  when  we  consider  that  the  mass  of 
floating  ice  below  water  is  eight  times  greater  than  that  above  ; 
and  Sir  James  Ross  saw  icebergs  which  had  rur.  aground  in 
Baffin's  Bay,  in  water  1500  feet  deep.  If  we  reflect  on  the 
weight  of  these  enormous  masses,  and  the  momentum  which 
they  accjuire  when  impelled  by  winds  and  currents,  and  when 
they  are  moving  at  the  rate  of  several  miles  an  hour,  it  seems 
difficult  to  over-estimate  the  disturbance  which  they  must  create 
on  a  soft  bottom  of  mud  or  loose  sand,  or  the  grinding  power  they 
must  exert  when  they  grate  along  a  shelf  of  solid  rock  overspread 
with  a  layer  of  sand. 

Mr.  Redfield  of  New  York  has  lately  published  *  a  chart  show 
ing  the  positions  of  the  icebergs  observed  in  the  North  Atlantic 
daring  the  last  fifteen  years,  and  it  will  be  remarked,  that  they 
have  been  met  with  at  various  points  between  the  47th  and  36th 
parallels  of  latitude,'  the  most  southern  being  that  which  Captain 
Couthuoy  encountered,  lat.  36°  10'  N.,  long.  39°  W.,  a  mile 
long  and  100  feet  high.  This  berg  w^as  on  the  extreme  southern 
boundary  of  the  gulf  stream,  which  it  had  crossed  against  the 
direction  of  the  superficial  current,  so  as  to  get  as  far  south  as  the 
latitude  of  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar.  In  fact,  these  great  ice- 
islands  coming  from  the  Greenland  seas  are  not  stopped  by  the 
gulf-stream,  which  is  a  mere  superficial  current  of  warmer  water 
flowing  in  an  opposite  direction,  but  are  borne  along  from  N.E. 
to  S.W.  by  the  force  of  the  arctic  under-current,  consisting  of 
colder  water,  into  which  the  icebergs  descend  to  a  great  depth. 

All  the  circumstances  connected  with  the  geographical  outline 
of  the  coast,  the  shape  of  the  sea-bottom,  the  oceanic  currents, 
and  the  prevailing  winds,  although  liable  to  be  modified  and 
greatly  altered  in  the  course  of  time,  may  continue  nearly  the 
same  for  the  next  ten  thousand  or  twenty  thousand  years  ;  and 
in  that  period  thousands  of  bergs,  occasionally  charged  with  frag 
ments  of  rock,  and  many  of  them  running  aground  in  a  variety 
of  places,  will  be  conveyed  in  every  century  over  certain  tracts 
*  Amer.  Journ.  Science,  vol.  xlviii.  1844, 


18  COAST  OF  NEWFOUNDLAND.  [CHAP.  I. 

of  the  Atlantic,  and  in  given  directions.  The  natural  course  of 
oceanic  currents  transporting  ice  from  polar  regions  is  from  N.E. 
to  S.W. ;  the  westerly  inclination  being  due  to  the  influence  of 
the  increased  velocity  of  the  diurnal  rotation  of  the  earth's  sur 
face  as  we  proceed  southward.  Now  it  is  a  well-known  fact, 
and  one  of  great  geological  interest,  which  I  had  an  opportunity 
of  verifying  myself  in  1842,^  that  in  Canada  the  polished  surfaces 
of  hard  rocks  exhibit  those  strise  and  straight  parallel  grooves 
(such  as  are  generally  ascribed  to  glacial  action)  in  a  N.E.  and 
S.W.  direction,  and  the  blocks  called  erratic  have  also  traveled 
from  N.E.  to  S.W.  Their  course,  therefore,  agrees,  as  Mr. 
Redfield  has  pointed  out,  with  the  normal  direction  of  polar  cur 
rents  charged  with  ice,  where  no  disturbing  causes  have  inter 
vened.  In  order  to  account  for  the  phenomenon,  we  have  to  sup 
pose  that  Canada  was  submerged  at  the  time  when  the  rocks 
were  polished  and  striated  by  the  grating  of  the  ice  on  the  ancient 
sea-bottom  ;  and  that  this  was  actually  the  case,  is  proved  by  in 
dependent  evidence,  namely,  the  occurrence  of  marine  shells  of 
recent  species  at  various  heights  above  the  level  of  the  sea  in 
the  region  drained  by  the  St.  Lawrence. f  Professor  Hitchcock 
has  shown  that,  in  Massachusetts,  there  is  another  system  of 
striai  and  grooves  running  from  N.N.E.  to  S.S.W.  ;  the  bould 
ers  and  transported  blocks  of  the  same  region  having  taken  a  cor 
responding  course,  doubtless,  in  consequence  of  the  floating  ice 
bergs  having,  in  that  case,  been  made  by  winds  or  currents,  or 
the  shape  of  the  land  and  sea-bottom,  to  deviate  from  the  normal 
direction. 

Many  of  the  icebergs  annually  drifted  into  southern  latitudes 
in  the  Atlantic,  are  covered  with  seals,  which  are  thus  brought 
into  very  uncongenial  climates,  and  probably  are  never  able  to 
make  their  way  back  again.  They  are  often  seen  playing  about 
the  rocks  on  the  shores  of  Massachusetts  in  summer,  so  that  they 
seem  able,  for  a  time  at  least,  to  accommodate  themselves  to  con 
siderable  heat. 

Early  on  the  morning  of  the  1 5th  of  September,  the  captain 

*  Sec  "Lyoll's  Travels  in  North  America,''  vol.  ii,  p.  135. 
t  Ibid.  vol.  h.  p,  143. 


CHAP.  I.]  ENGINE-ROOM  OF  A  STEAMER.  19 


got  sight  of  land,  consisting  of  the  hills  near  St.  John's,  New 
foundland,  about  forty  miles  distant.  When  we  came  on  deck, 
we  were  running  rapidly  in  smooth  water  along  the  shore,  within 
four  miles  of  Trespassey  Bay.  The  atmosphere  was  bright,  and 
we  had  a  clear  view  of  the  rocky  coast,  which  reminded  me  of 
some  of  the  most  sterile,  cold,  and  treeless  parts  of  Scotland. 
Not  even  a  shrub  appeared  to  vary  the  uniform  covering  of  green 
turf;  yet  we  were  in  a  latitude  corresponding  to  the  South  of 
France. 

In  a  large  steam-ship  like  the  Britannia,  there  are  three  very 
distinct  societies,  whose  employments  during  the  voyage  are  sin 
gularly  contrasted.  There  are  the  sailors,  all  of  whom  were 
fully  occupied  under  their  officers,  for  a  time  at  least,  during  the 
gale,  furling  the  sails  and  attending  to  the  ordinary  duties  of  a 
sailing  ship.  Then  there  is  the  saloon,  where  gentlemen  and 
well-dressed  ladies  are  seen  lounging  and  reading  books,  or  talk 
ing,  or  playing  backgammon,  and  enjoying,  except  during  a  hur 
ricane,  the  luxuries  arid  expensive  fare  of  a  large  hotel.  Tn 
another  spacious  room,  which  I  had  the  curiosity  to  visit  after 
the  storm,  is  a  large  corps  of  enginemen  and  firemen,  with  sooty 
faces  and  soiled  clothes,  pale  with  heat,  heaping  up  coals  on  the 
great  furnaces,  or  regulating  the  machinery.  On  visiting  the 
large  engine-room,  we  were  filled  with  admiration  at  seeing  the 
complicated  apparatus,  and  the  ease  with  which  it  moved,  having 
never  once  stopped  for  a  minute  when  traversing  3000  miles  of 
ocean,  although  the  vessel  had  been  .pitching  and  rolling,  and 
sometimes  quivering,  as  she  was  forced  by  the  power  of  the  steam 
against  the  opposing  waves,  and  although  the  ship  had  sometimes 
heeled  at  a  very  high  angle,  especially  when  struck  suddenly  by 
the  squall  of  the  14th.  The  engine  is  so  placed  near  the  center 
of  the  ship,  that  during  a  storm  the  piston  is  never  inclined  at  a 
higher  angle  than  twelve  degrees,  which  does  not  derange  the 
freedom  of  its  motion.  The  Britannia,  a  ship  of  1200  tons,  has 
four  large  boilers  ;  the  engines  having  a  44-0  horse  power. 
When  she  left  Liverpool  she  had  550  tons  of  cuals  in  her,  and 
burned  from  thirty  to  forty  tons  a  day,  her  speed  augmenting 
sensibly  toward  the  end  of  the  voyage,  as  she  grew  lighter  ; 


20  REVOLUTIONS  OF  ENGINE.  [CHA.P.  I. 

but,  on  the  other  hand,  the  vibration  caused  by  the  machinery 
increasing  also,  much  to  the  discomfort  of  the  passengers. 

Among  the  wonders  of  the  engine-room,  no  object  made  so 
lively  an  impression  on  my  mind  as  a  small  dial,  called  the 
Indicator,  where  a  hand,  like  that  of  a  clock,  moving  round  in  a 
circle,  registers  the  number  of  revolutions  made  by  the  wheels  of 
the  engine  during  the  whole  voyage  ;  this  hand  or  index  being 
attached  to  one  of  the  moving  shafts,  and  made  to  advance 
slightly  by  every  stroke.  We  were  going  at  the  time  at  the 
rate  of  ten  and  a  half  miles  an  hour,  and  the  paddle-wheels 
were  revolving  fifteen  and  a  half  times  a  minute ;  but  during  the 
gale  they  had  only  made  six  or  seven  revolutions,  the  engineer, 
to  avoid  too  great  a  strain  on  the  machinery,  having  then  burned 
much  less  coal,  and  going  no  more  than  half  speed.  Our  short 
est  day's  sail,  during  the  whole  voyage,  was  114  miles.  I 
observed,  on  our  arrival  at  Boston,  that  the  number  of  revolu 
tions  registered  by  the  Indicator  was  275,122,  the  ship  having 
run  2946  miles  in  fourteen  days  and  twenty-two  hours  ;  the 
distance  from  Liverpool  to  Halifax  being  2550  miles,  and  from 
thence  to  Boston  396.  For  the  sake  of  comparing  this  result 
with  former  voyages  of  the  Britannia,  I  made  the  following 
extract  from  the  Log  Book  of  the  chief  engineer  : — 

Number  of  Length  of 

Revolutions  Voyage. 

of  the  Engines.         Days.  Hours. 

Outward  Voyage,   May.   1845  ....  273,328  ....  14  12 

Homeward     do.        June,       "     ....  253,073  ....  11  8 

Outward        do.        July,       "     ....  282,409  ....  18  13 

Homeward    do.       August,  "     ....  292,122  ....  14  2 

It  is  remarkable  how  nearly  the  number  of  strokes  made  by 
the  engine  in  our  present  voyage  agrees  with  those  recorded  in 
the  voyage  of  last  May,  which  it  will  be  seen  was  of  the  sarn,e 
length,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  hours,  the  longer  voyage 
exhibiting  a  slight  excess  in  the  number  of  revolutions.  In  all 
the  four  trips,  the  difference  between  the  highest  and  lowest 
numbers,  amounts  to  no  more  than  a  seventh  or  eighth  of  the 
whole.  It  is  like  the  regular  pulsation  of  the  heart,  beating  a 
given  number  of  times  in  a  minute ;  the  pulse  quickening  during 


CHAP.  I.]  COOLIES  IN  THE  WEST  INDIES.  21 

excitement  and  more  rapid  motion,  and  being  slower  when  in 
comparative  rest,  yet  on  the  whole  preserving  a  remarkable 
uniformity  of  action.  Nor  can  any  one  in  full  health  and  vigor 
be  more  unconscious  of  the  rapid  contractions  and  dilatations  of 
the  heart,  than  are  nearly  all  the  inmates  of  the  steam-ship  of 
the  complicated  works  and  movements  of  the  machinery,  on  the 
accuracy  of  which  their  progress  and  safety  depends. 

In  the  course  of  the  last  twelve  months,  the  steamers  on  this 
line  have  sometimes  taken  as  much  as  seventeen,  and  even 
twenty-one  days,  to  make  their  passage  against  head  winds  by 
Halifax,  to  Boston ;  but  the  comparative  advantage  of  steam 
power  is  never  more  evident  than  at  the  period  of  the  most 
tedious  voyages,  the  liners  having  required  seventy  days  or  more 
to  cross  in  corresponding  seasons. 

During  the  passage  we  had  some  animated  discussions  in  the 
saloon  on  the  grand  experiment  now  making  by  the  British 
government,  of  importing  Coolies,  or  Hindoo  emigrants,  from  the 
Deccan  into  the  West  Indies,  to  make  up  for  the  deiiciency  of 
Negro  labor  consequent  on  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves.  We 
had  on  board  a  Liverpool  merchant,  who  had  a  large  contract 
for  conveying  these  Coolies  across  the  ocean,  and  who  told  us 
that  more  than  forty  ships  would  be  employed  this  year  (1845) 
in  carrying  each  300  Hindoo  laborers  to  Jamaica,  at  the  cost  of 
£lG  per  head,  and  that  he  should  sell  the  casks,  which  con 
tained  the  water  for  their  drink,  for  the  sugar  trade  in  the  West 
Indies.  The  New  Englanders  on  board  wished  to  know  how 
far  this  proceeding  differed  from  a  new  slave  trade.  It  was 
explained  to  them  that  the  emigrants  were  starving  in  their  own 
country  ;  that  the  act  was  a  voluntary  one  on  their  part ;  and 
that,  after  a  short  term  of  years,  the  government  was  bound  to 
give  them  a  free  passage  back  to  their  native  country.  Of  this 
privilege  many,  after  saving  a  sum  of  money,  had  actually 
availed  themselves.  It  was  also  alleged  that  they  made  good 
agricultural  laborers  in  a  tropical  climate.  The  Americans 
replied,  that  to  introduce  into  any  colony  two  distinct  races, 
having  different  languages  and  religions,  such  as  Negroes  and 
Hindoos,  is  a  curse  of  the  greatest  magnitude,  and  of  the  most 


22  COOLIES  IN  THE  WEST  INDIES.  [CHAP.  I. 


lasting  kind,  as  experience  had  proved  throughout  the  American 
continent. 

A  Barbadoes  planter,  who  was  present,  declared  his  opinion 
that  in  his  island  the  emancipation  of  the  negroes  had  been  suc 
cessful  ;  the  population,  about  120,000,  being  dense,  arid  a  large 
proportion  of  them  having  white  blood  in  their  veins,  with  many 
of  the  wants  of  civilized  men,  and  a  strong  wish  to  educate  their 
children.  The  Americans,  however,  drew  from  him  the  admis 
sion,  that  in  proportion  as  the  colored  people  were  rising  in  so 
ciety,  the  whites,  whose  aristocratic  feelings  and  tastes  were 
wounded  by  the  increased  importance  of  the  inferior  race,  were 
leaving  Barbadoes,  the  richest  of  them  retreating  to  England, 
and  the  poor  seeking  their  fortunes  in  the  United  States.  It  was 
also  conceded,  that  in  the  larger  islands,  such  as  Jamaica,  which 
the  Americans  compared  to  their  Southern  States,  the  negroes 
have  retreated  to  unoccupied  lands  and  squatted,  and  could  not 
be  induced  to  labor,  and  were  therefore  retrograding  in  civiliza 
tion  ;  so  that  the  experience  of  more  than  ten  years  would  be 
required  before  the  Americans  could  feel  warranted  in  imitating 
the  example  of  England,  even  if  they  had  the  means  of  indemni 
fying  the  southern  planters. 

We  landed  at  Halifax  on  the  17th  of  September,  and  spent 
some  hours  there  very  agreeably,  much  refreshed  by  a  walk  on 
terra  firma,  and  glad  to  call  on  some  friends  in  the  town.  I 
was  surprised  to  find  that  some  of  our  fellow  passengers,  bound 
for  Montreal,  intended  to  go  on  with  us  to  Boston,  instead  of 
stopping  here  ;  so  great  are  the  facilities  now  enjoyed  of  traveling 
from  New  England  to  Canada,  passing  via  Boston  by  railway  to 
Albany,  and  thence  by  steam-boats  through  Lakes  George  and 
Champlain  to  Montreal. 

The  chief  subject  of  conversation,  during  the  remaining  two 
days  of  our  voyage,  was  the  death  of  Judge  Story,  the  eminent 
jurist,  whose  works  and  decisions  have  been  often  cited  as  of  high 
authority  by  English  judges.  The  news  of  this  unexpected  event 
reached  us  at  Halifax,  and  was  evidently  a  matter  of  deep  con 
cern  to  his  fellow  citizens,  by  whom  he  had  been  much  loved  and 
admired.  After  retiring  from  the  bench  of  the  Supreme  Court 


CHAP.  I.]  JUDGE  STORY.  03 

at  Washington,  Story  had  been  placed  at  the  head  of  the  Law 
School  in  Harvard  University,  which  he  had  soon  raised  to  celeb 
rity  from  small  beginnings,  drawing  students  to  his  lectures  from 
every  state  of  the  Union. 

I  afterward  read,  in  the  newspapers  of  Boston,  several  funeral 
orations  pronounced  in  his  honor,  some  from  the  pulpit,  by  preach 
ers  of  his  own  denomination  (he  was  president  of  the  Unitarian 
Association),  which  praised  him  for  his  pure,  scriptural,  and  lib 
eral  Christianity,  and  represented  him  as  an  earnest  defender  of 
the  faith,  one  who  had  given  to  its  evidences  that  accurate  inves 
tigation  which  his  reflecting  mind  and  professional  habits  demand 
ed.  "What  he  found  to  be  true,  he  was  never  ashamed  or  afraid 
to  declare.  He  valued  the  Gospel  and  felt  his  own  need  of  its 
restraining  and  consoling  power,  alike  in  temptation  and  grief," 
&c. 

But  eloquent  eulogies  were  not  wanting  from  ministers  of  some 
of  the  other  churches,  usually  called  in  New  England,  by  way 
of  distinction  from  the  Unitarian,  "  orthodox,"  some  of  which 
displayed  at  once  the  intensity  and  liberality  of  sectarian  feeling 
in  this  country.  They  did  homage  to  his  talents  and  the  upright 
ness  of  his  conduct,  and  they  dealt  with  his  theological  opinions  in 
the  spirit  of  Dry  den's  beautiful  lines  : — 

"  The  soul  of  Arcite  went  where  heathens  go, 
Who  better  live  than  we,  though  less  they  know." 

I  will  extract,  from  one  of  the  most  favorable  of  these  effusions, 
the  following  passage  : — 

"  Judge  Story  was  a  Christian  who  professed  a  firm  belief  in 
the  Bible  as  a  revelation  from  God.  He  was  a  Unitarian ;  but 
if  he  reposed  in  the  divine  mercy  through  the  mediation  of 
Christ,  and  if  he  came  with  the  temper  of  a  child  to  the  Scrip 
tures,  I  have  no  doubt  he  has  been  received  of  Him  to  whom,  in 
his  last  words,  he  committed  himself  in  prayer  ;  and,  had  he  been 
more  orthodox  in  his  creed  without  the  Christian  spirit  and  the 
Christian  life,  his  orthodoxy  would  not  have  saved  him." 

Sept.  i9. — Early  in  the  morning  of  the  fifteenth  day  from 
our  leaving  Liverpool,  we  came  in  sight  of  the  lighthouse  of  Cape 


24  SEVERE  FROST  AT  BOSTON.  [CHAP.  I. 

Anne,  and  a  small  and  gayly  painted  green  schooner,  in  full  sail, 
and  scudding  rapidly  through  the  water,  brought  us  a  pilot.  In 
a  few  hours  the  long  line  of  coast  became  more  and  more  distinct, 
till  Salem,  Nahant,  Lynn,  the  harbor  of  Boston  and  its  islands, 
and  at  last  the  dome  -of  the  State  House,  crowning  the  highest 
eminence,  came  full  into  view.  To  us  the  most  novel  feature  in 
the  architectural  aspect  of  the  city,  was  the  Bunker  Hill  Monu 
ment,  which  had  been  erected  since  1842  ;  the  form  of  which, 
as  it  resembles  an  Egyptian  obelisk,  and  possibly  because  I  had 
seen  that  form  imitated  in  some  of  our  tall  factory  chimneys,  gave 
me  no  pleasure. 

After  the  cloudy  and  stormy  weather  we  had  encountered  in 
the  Atlantic,  and  the  ice  and  fogs  seen  near  the  great  banks,  we 
were  delighted  with  the  clear  atmosphere  and  bright  sunshine  of 
Boston,  and  heard  with  surprise  of  the  intense  heat  of  the  sum 
mer,  of  which  many  persons  had  lately  died,  especially  in  New 
York.  The  extremes,  indeed,  of  heat  and  cold  in  this  country, 
are  truly  remarkable.  Looking  into  the  windows  of  a  print 
shop,  I  saw  an  engraving  of  our  good  ship,  the  Britannia,  which 
we  had  just  quitted,  represented  as  in  the  act  of  forcing  her  way 
through  the  ice  of  Boston  harbor  in  the  winter  of  1844 — a  truly 
arctic  scene.  A  fellow  passenger,  a  merchant  from  New  York, 
where  they  are  jealous  of  the  monopoly  hitherto  enjoyed  by  their 
New  England  rival,  of  a  direct  and  regular  stearn  communica 
tion  with  Europe,  remarked  to  me  that  if  the  people  of  Boston 
had  been  wise,  they  would  never  have  encouraged  the  publication 
of  this  print,  as  it  was  a  clear  proof  that  the  British  government 
should  rather  have  selected  New  York,  where  the  sea  never 
freezes,  as  the  fittest  port  for  the  mail  packets.  I  had  heard 
much  during  the  voyage  of  this  strange  adventure  of  the  Britan 
nia  in  the  ice.  Last  winter  it  appears  there  had  been  a  frost  of 
unusual  intensity,  such  as  had  not  been  known  for  more  than  half 
a  century,  which  caused  the  sea  to  be  frozen  over  in  the  harbor 
of  Boston,  although  the  water  is  as  salt  there  as  in  mid-ocean. 
Moreover,  the  tide  runs  there  at  the  rate  of  four  or  five  miles  an 
hour,  rising  twelve  feet,  and  causing  the  whole  body  of  the  ice  to 
be  uplifted  arid  let  down  again  to  that  amount  twice  every  twen- 


CHAP.  I.]  SEVERE  FROST  AT  BOSTON.  25 

ty-four  hours.  Notwithstanding  this  movement,  the  surface  re 
mained  even  and  unbroken,  except  along  the  shore,  where  it 
cracked. 

Had  the  continuance  of  this  frost  been  anticipated,  it  would 
have  been  easy  to  keep  open  a  passage  ;  but  on  the  1st  of  Feb 
ruary,  when  the  Britannia  was  appointed  to  sail,  it  was  found 
that  the  ice  was  seven  feet  thick  in  the  wharf,  and  two  feet 
thick  for  a  distance  of  seven  miles  out ;  so  that  wagons  and  carts 
were  conveying  cotton  and  other  freights  from  the  shore  to  the 
edge  of  the  ice,  where  ships  were  taking  in  their  cargoes.  No 
sooner  was  it  understood  that  the  mail  was  imprisoned,  than  the 
public  spirit  of  the  whole  city  was  roused,  and  a  large  sum  of 
money  instantly  subscribed  for  cutting  a  canal,  seven  miles  long 
and  100  feet  wide,  through  the  ice.  They  began  the  operation 
by  making  two  straight  furrows,  seven  inches  deep,  with  an  ice 
plough  drawn  by  horses,  and  then  sawed  the  ice  into  square 
sheets,  each  100  feet  in  diameter.  When  these  were  detached, 
they  were  made  to  slide,  by.  means  of  iron  hooks  and  ropes  fixed 
to  them,  under  the  great  body  of  the  ice,  one  edge  being  first 
depressed,  and  the  ropes  being  pulled  by  a  team  of  horses,  and 
occasionally  by  a  body  of  fifty  men.  On  the  3d  of  February, 
only  two  days  after  her  time,  the  steamer  sailed  out,  breaking 
through  a  newly-formed  sheet  of  ice,  two  inches  thick,  her  bows 
being  fortified  with  iron  to  protect  her  copper  sheeting.  She 
burst  through  the  ice  at  the  rate  of  seven  miles  an  hour  without 
much  damage  to  her  paddles  ;  but  before  she  was  in  clear  water, 
all  her  guard  of  iron  had  been  torn  off.  An  eye-witness  of  the 
scene  told  me  that  tents  had  been  pitched  on  the  ice,  then  cov 
ered  by  a  slight  fall  of  snow,  and  a  concourse  of  people  followed 
and  cheered  for  the  first  mile,  some  in  sleighs,  others  in  sailing 
Doats  fitted  up  with  long  blades  of  iron,  like  skates,  by  means  of 
which  they  are  urged  rapidly  along  by  their  sails,  not  only  before 
the  wind,  but  even  with  a  side  wind,  tacking  and  beating  to 
windward  as  if  they  were  in  the  water. 

The  Britannia,  released  from  her  bonds,  reached  Liverpool  in 
Ifteen  days,  so  that  no  alarm  had  been  occasioned  by  the  delay; 
,nd  when  the  British  Post-Office  department  offered  to  defray 
VOL.  i. — B 


26  CUSTOM-HOUSE  OFFICERS.  [CHAP.  1. 

the  expense  of  the  ice-channel,  the  citizens  of  Boston  declined  to 
be  reimbursed. 

We  were  not  detained  more  than  an  hour  in  the  Custom 
house,  although  the  number  of  our  packages  was  great.  In  that 
hour  the  newspapers  which  had  come  out  with  us  had  been  soj 
rapidly  distributed,  that  our  carriage  was  assailed  in  the  streets 
by  a  host  of  vociferous  boys,  calling  out,  "  Fifteen  days  later 
from  Europe" — "  The  Times  and  Punch  just  received  by  the 
Britannia."  In  the  course  of  my  travels  in  the  United  States  I 
heard  American  politicians  complaining  of  the  frequent  change 
of  officials,  high  and  low,  as  often  as  a  new  party  comes  into 
power.  In  spite  of  this  practice,  however,  the  Custom-house 
officers,  greatly  to  the  comfort  of  the  public,  belong  to  a  higher 
grade  of  society  than  those  at  Liverpool  and  our  principal  ports. 
I  asked  a  New  England  friend,  who  was  well  acquainted  with 
the  "  Old  Country,"  whether  the  subordinates  here  are  more 
highly  paid  ?  "  By  no  means,"  he  replied.  "  The  difference, 
then,"  said  I,  "  must  be  owing  to  the  better  education  given  to 
all  in  your  public  schools?"  "Perhaps,  in  some  degree,"  he 
rejoined  ;  "  but  far  more  to  the  peculiarity  of  our  institutions. 
Hecent  examples  are  not  wanting  of  men  who  have  passed  in  a 
few  years  from  the  chief  place  in  one  of  our  great  Custom-houses 
to  a  seat  in  the  Cabinet  or  an  appointment  as  embassador  to  a 
first-rate  European  power  ;  but,  what  is  far  more  to  the  point, 
men  who  are  unsuccessful  at  the  bar  or  the  church,  often  accept 
inferior  stations  in  the  Custom-house  and  other  public  offices 
without  loss  of  social  position."  This  explanation  led  me  to 
reflect  how  much  the  British  public  might  gain  if  a  multitude 
of  the  smaller  places  in  the  public  service  at  home,  now  slighted 
by  aristocratic  prejudices  as  ungenteel,  were  filled  by  those  gentle 
men  who,  after  being  highly  educated  at  Eton  and  other  public 
schools,  lead  now  a  pastoral  life  in  Australia,  or  spend  their  best 
days  in  exile  far  from  their  kindred  and  native  land,  as  soldiers 
or  sailors,  wilhin  the  tropics. 


CHAPTER  II. 

Boston. — Horticultural  Show  in  Faneuil  Hall. — Review  of  Militia. — Peace 
Association. — Excursion  to  the  White  Mountains. — Railway  Traveling. 
— Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire. — Geology,  Fossils  in  Drift. — Submarine 
Forest. — Wild  Plants  ;  Asters,  Solidagos,  Poison  Ivy.  —  Swallows. — 
Glacial  Grooves. — Rocfcs  transported  by  Antarctic  Ice. — Body  of  a  Whale 
discovered  by  an  American  Trader  in  an  Iceberg. 

GREAT  progress  has  been  made  in  beautifying  the  city  of 
Boston  by  new  public  buildings  in  the  three  years  since  we  were 
last  here.  Several  of  these  are  constructed  of  granite,  in  a  hand 
some  style  of  architecture.  The  site  of  the  town  is  almost  an 
island,  which  has  been  united  to  the  main  land  by  long  mounds, 
which  are  beginning  to  radiate  in  all  directions,  except  the  east, 
like  the  spokes  of  a  wheel.  Railway  trains  are  seen  continually 
flying  to  and  fro  along  these  narrow  causeways  at  all  hours  of 
the  day. 

On  the  evening  of  our  arrival  we  went  to  a  horticultural  show 
of  fruit  and  flowers  in  Faneuil  Hall,  where  we  found  a  large 
assembly  of  both  sexes  enjoying  a  "  temperance  feast,"  a  band  of 
music  in  the  gallery,  and  the  table  spread  with  cakes,  fruit,  ices, 
tea,  milk,  and  whey.  I  was  glad  to  observe,  what  I  am  told, 
howrever,  is  an  innovation  here,  that  the  ladies,  instead  of  merely 
looking  on  from  a  gallery  to  see  the  gentlemen  eat,  were  sitting 
at  table  in  the  body  of  the  hall,  and  listening  to  some  of  the  first 
orators  of  the  land,  Daniel  Webster,  R.  C.  Winthrop,  and  our 
friend  and  late  fellow-voyager  in  the  Britannia,  Edward  Everett, 
whose  reception,  on  his  return  from  his  embassy  to  England,  was 
most  enthusiastic.  He  said,  "  he  had  been  so  lately  rocking  on 
the  Atlantic,  whose  lullaby  was  not  always  of  the  gentlest,  that 
he  was  hardly  fit  for  a  rocking  in  <  the  old  cradle  of  Liberty  ;' 
and  felt  almost  unconsciously  inclined  to  catch  at  the  table  to 
steady  himself,  expecting  to  see  the  flowers  and  the  fruit  fetch 
away  in  some  lee-lurch.  Even  the  pillars  of  old  Faneuil  Hal!, 


28  REVIEW  OF  MILITIA.  [CHAP.  II. 

which  are  not  often  found  out  of  the  true  plumb-line,  seemed  to 
reel  over  his  head." 

Allusion  was  here  made  to  this  Hall  having  been  the  place  of 
large  popular  meetings  before  1775,  where  American  patriotism 
was  first  roused  to  make  a  stand  against  the  claims  of  the  mother- 
country  to  impose  taxes  without  consent  of  the  provincial  legis 
lature.  In  later  days,  the  building  being  under  the  control  of 
the  city  authorities,  and  the  Whigs  being  usually  in  the  ascendant 
here,  the  moderate  party  have  almost  always  obtained  possession 
of  the  Hall. 

Sept.  23. — From  the  windows  of  a  friend's  house,  opening  on 
the  Common,  we  have  a  full  view  of  what  is  called  the  "  Fall 
Parade,"  or  autumnal  review  of  the  Boston  militia,  cavalry  and 
infantry,  which  has  lasted  all  day,  ending  with  a  sham  fight  and 
much  firing  of  cannon.  Not  that  there  is  any  excess  of  military 
fervor  in  this  State,  as  in  some  others  at  the  present  moment ; 
on  the  contrary,  a  numerous  and  increasing  Peace  Association  is 
distributing,  gratis,  many  thousand  copies  of  a,  recent  Fourth-of- 
July  oration  against  war  and  military  establishments,  delivered 
by  Mr.  Charles  Sumner.  I  was  asked  by  a  young  friend  here, 
in  full  uniform,  whether  I  did  not  think  "  Independence-day"  (an 
anniversary  when  all  who  have  a  regimental  costume  are  accus 
tomed  to  wear  it),  a  most  inappropriate  time  for  such  an  effusion, 
in  which  non-resistance  principles  bordering  on  Quakerism  had 
been  avowed;  the  orator  asking,  among  other  questions,  "What 
is  the  use  of  the  militia  of  the  United  States  ?"  and  going  as  far 
as  Channing  in  pronouncing  war  to  be  unchristian. 

I  remembered  having  once  admired  the  present  Bishop  of  St. 
Asaph  for  choosing  a  certain  day,  set  apart  by  the  English 
Church  for  commemorating  the  "  conspiracy,  malicious  practices, 
and  Popish  tyranny  of  the  Romanists,"  for  preaching  a  sermon 
on  religious  toleration  ;  and  I  therefore  felt  some  hesitation  in 
condemning  the  opportunity  seized  upon  by  an  enthusiast  of  the 
peace  party  for  propagating  his  views. 

"  There  is  a  soul  of  goodness  in  things  evil 
Would  men  observingly  distill  it  out." 

So  long  as  the  War  of  Independence  lasted,  I  can  understand 


CHAP.  II.]  PEACE  ASSOCIATION.  29 

the  policy  of  annually  reading  out  to  the  assembled  multitude  the 
celebrated  "  Declaration,"  setting  forth  the  injuries  inflicted  by 
Great  Britain,  her  usurpations  previous  to  the  year  1776,  "her 
design  to  reduce  the  Americans  to  a  state  of  absolute  dependence 
by  quartering  armed  troops  upon  the  people — refusing  to  make 
the  judges  independent  of  the  crown — imposing  taxes  without 
consent  of  the  colonies — depriving  them  of  trial  by  jury — some 
times  suspending  their  legislatures — waging  war  against  the 
colonies,  arid  transporting  to  their  shores  large  armies  of  foreign 
mercenaries  to  complete  the  work  of  death,  desolation,  and 
tyranny  already  begun,  with  circumstances  of  cruelty  and  perfidy 
scarcely  paralleled  in  the  most  barbarous  ages — exciting  domestic 
insurrections — bringing  on  the  inhabitants  of  the  frontiers  the 
merciless  Indian  savages,  whose  known  rule  of  warfare  is  the 
destruction  of  all  ages,  sexes,  and  conditions,"  &c.,  &c. 

All  this  recital  may  have  been  expedient  when  the  great 
struggle  for  liberty  and  national  existence  was  still  pending  ;  but 
what  effect  can  it  have  now,  but  to  keep  alive  bad  feelings,  and 
perpetuate  the  memory  of  what  should  nearly  be  forgotten  ?  In 
many  of  the  newer  States  the  majority  of  the  entire  population 
have  either  themselves  come  out  from  the  British  Isles  as  new 
settlers,  or  are  the  children  or  grandchildren  of  men  who  emi 
grated  since  the  "  Declaration"  was  drawn  up.  If,  therefore, 
they  pour  out  in  schools,  or  at  Fourth-of-July  meetings,  declama 
tory  and  warlike  speeches  against  the  English  oppressors  of 
America,  their  words  are  uttered  by  parricidal  lips,  for  they  are 
the  hereditary  representatives,  not  of  the  aggrieved  party,  but  of 
the  aggressors. 

To  many  the  Peace  Associations  appear  to  aim  at  objects  as 
Utopian  and  hopeless  as  did  the  Temperance  Societies  to  the 
generation  which  is  now  passing  away.  The  cessation  of  war 
seems  as  unattainable  as  did  the  total  abstinence  from  intoxicating 
liquors.  But  we  have  seen  a  great  moral  reform  brought  about, 
in  many  populous  districts,  mainly  by  combined  efforts  of  well- 
organized  societies  to  discourage  intemperance,  and  we  may  hope 
that  the  hostilities  of  civilized  nations  may  be  mitigated  at  least 
by  similar  exertions.  "  Iri  the  harbor  of  Boston,"  says  Mr. 


30  ENVIRONS  OF  BOSTON.  [CHAP.  II. 

Sumner,  "  the  Ohio,  a  ship  of  the  line,  of  ninety  guns,  is  now 
swinging  idly  at  her  moorings.  She  costs  as  much  annually  to 
maintain  her  in  service,  in  salaries,  wages,  and  provisions,  as  four 
Harvard  Universities."  He  might  have  gone  on  to  calculate 
how  many  primary  schools  might  be  maintained  by  the  disband 
ing  of  single  regiments,  or  the  paying  off  of  single  ships,  of  those 
vast  standing  armies  and  navies  now  kept  up  in  so  many  coun 
tries  in  Europe.  How  much  ignorance,  bigotry,  and  savage 
barbarism  in  the  lower  classes  might  be  prevented  by  employing 
in  education  a  small  part  of  the  revenues  required  to  maintain 
this  state  of  armed  peace  ! 

Sept.  22. — At  this  season  the  wealthier  inhabitants  of  Boston 
are  absent  at  watering-places  in  the  hills,  where  there  are  mine 
ral  springs,  or  at  the  sea-side.  Some  of  them  in  their  country 
villas,  where  we  visited  several  friends  in  the  neighborhood.  The 
environs  of  Boston  are  very  agreeable  ;  woods  and  hills,  and  bare 
rocks,  and  small  lakes,  and  estuaries  running  far  into  the  land, 
and  lanes  with  hedges,  and  abundance  of  wild  flowers.  The 
extreme  heat  of  summer  does  not  allow  of  the  green  meadows 
and  verdant  lawns  of  England,  but  there  are  some  well-kept 
gardens  here — a  costly  luxury  where  the  wages  of  labor  are  so 
high. 

Sept.  24. — I  had  determined  before  the  autumn  was  over  to 
make  an  excursion  to  the  White  Mountains  of  New  Hampshire, 
which,  with  the  exception  of  those  in  part  of  the  Alleghany 
range  in  North  Carolina,  are  the  loftiest  east  of  the  Mississippi. 
Accordingly,  I  set  off  with  my  wife  on  the  railway  for  Ports 
mouth,  fifty-four  miles  north  of  Boston,  which  we  reached  in  two 
hours  and  three  quarters,  having  stopped  at  several  intervening 
places,  and  going  usually  at  the  rate  of  twenty  miles  an  hour. 
There  were  about  eighty  passengers  in  the  train,  forty  of  whom 
were  in  the  same  carriage  as  ourselves.  "  The  car,"  in  shape 
like  a  long  omnibus,  has  a  passage  down  the  middle,  sometimes 
called  "  the  aisle,"  on  the  back  part  of  which  the  seats  are  ranged 
transversely  to  the  length  of  the  apartment,  which  is  high  enough 
to  allow  a  tall  man  to  walk  in  it  with  his  Jiat  on.  Each  seat 
holds  two  persons,  and  is  well-cushioned  and  furnished  with  a 


CHAP.  II.]  RAILWAY  TRAVELING.  31 

wooden  back  ingeniously  contrived,  so  as  to  turn  and  permit  the 
traveler  to  face  either  way,  as  he  may  choose  to  converse  with 
any  acquaintance  who  may  be  sitting-  before  or  behind  him. 
The  long  row  of  windows  on  each  side  affords  a  good  view  of 
the  country,  of  which  more  is  thus  seen  than  on  our  English 
railroads.  The  trains,  moreover,  pass  frequently  through  the 
streets  of  villages  and  towns,  many  of  which  have  sprung  up 
since  the  construction  of  the  railway.  The  conductor  passes 
freely  through  the  passage  in  the  center,  and  from  one  car  to 
another,  examining  tickets  and  receiving  payment,  so  as  to  pre 
vent  any  delay  at  the  stations. 

If  we  desire  to  form  an  estimate  of  the  relative  accommoda 
tion,  advantages,  comforts,  and  cost  of  the  journey  in  one  of  these 
railways  as  compared  with  those  of  England,  we  must  begin  by 
supposing  all  our  first,  second,  and  third-class  passengers  thrown 
into  one  set  of  carriages,  and  we  shall  then  be  astonished  at  the 
ease  and  style  with  which  the  millions  travel  in  the  United 
States.  The  charge  for  the  distance  of  fifty-four  miles,  from 
Boston  to  Portsmouth,  was  1^  dollar  each,  or  6s.  4:d.  English, 
which  was  just  half  \vhat  we  had  paid  three  weeks  before  for 
first-class  places  on  our  journey  from  London  to  Liverpool 
(21.  10s.  for  210  miles),  the  speed  being  in  both  cases  the  same. 
Here  there  is  the  want  of  privacy  enjoyed  in  an  English  first- 
class  carriage,  and  the  seats,  though  excellent,  are  less  luxurious. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  power  of  standing  upright  when  tired  of 
the  sitting  posture  is  not  to  be  despised,  especially  on  a  long 
journey,  and  the  open  view  right  and  left  from  a  whole  line  of 
windows  is  no  small  gain.  But  when  we  come  to  the  British 
second  and  third-class  vehicles,  cushionless,  dark,  and  if  it  happen 
to  rain,  sometimes  closed  up  with  wooden  shutters,  and  contrast 
them  with  the  cars  of  Massachusetts,  and  still  more  the  average 
appearance,  dress,  and  manners  of  the  inmates,  the  wide  differ 
ence  is  indeed  remarkable;  at  the  same  time,  the  price  which 
the  humblest  class  here  can  afford  to  pay  proves  how  much 
higher  must  be  the  standard  of  wages  than  with  us. 

On  starting,  we  had  first  to  cross  the  harbor  of  Boston  in  a 
large  ferry-boat,  where,  to  economize  time,  there  is  a  bar-  with 


32  PORTSMOUTH,  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [CHAP.  II, 

refreshments,  so  that  you  may  breakfast ;  or,  if  you  please,  buy 
newspapers,  or  pamphlets,  or  novels.  We  then  flew  over  rails, 
supported  on  long  lines  of  wooden  piles,  following  the  coast,  and 
having  often  the  sea  on  one  side,  and  fresh-water  lakes,  several 
miles  long,  or  salt  marshes,  on  the  other.  In  some  of  the 
marshes  we  saw  large  haycocks  on  piles,  waiting  till  the  winter, 
when,  the  mud  and  water  being  firmly  frozen,  the  crop  can  be 
carried  in.  We  were  soon  at  Lynn,  a  village  of  shoemakers, 
exporting  shoes  to  distant  parts  of  the  Union ;  and  next  went 
through  the  center  of  the  town  of  Salem,  partly  in  a  tunnel  in 
the  main  street ;  then  proceeded  to  Ipswich,  leaving  on  our  left 
Wenham  Lake,  and  seeing  from  the  road  the  wooden  houses  in 
which  great  stores  of  ice  are  preserved.  In  some  of  the  low 
grounds  I  saw  peat  cut,  and  laid  out  to  dry  for  fuel.  We 
crossed  the  river  Merrimack  near  its  mouth,  on  a  bridge  of  great 
length,  supported  by  piles,  and  then  entered  New  Hampshire, 
soon  coming  to  the  first  town  of  that  state,  called  Portsmouth, 
which  has  a  population  of  8000  souls,  and  was  once  the  resi 
dence  of  the  colonial  governor.  Here  I  made  a  short  stay,  pass 
ing  the  evening  at  the  house  of  Mr.  J.  L.  Hayes,  to  whom  we 
had  letters  of  introduction,  where  we  found  a  gay  party  assem 
bled,  and  dancing. 

Next  morning  I  set  out  on  an  excursion  with  Mr.  Hayes,  to 
explore  the  geological  features  of  the  neighborhood,  which  agree 
with  those  of  the  eastern  coast  generally  throughout  Massachu 
setts,  and  a  great  part  of  Maine — a  low  region  of  granitic  rocks, 
overspread  with  heaps  of  sand  and  gravel,  or  with  clay,  and 
here  and  there  an  erratic  or  huge  block  of  stone,  transported 
from  a  distance,  and  always  from  the  north.  Lakes  and  ponds 
numerous,  as  in  the  country  of  similar  geological  composition  in 
the  south  of  Norway  and  Sweden.  Here,  also,  as  in  Scandina 
via,  the  overlying  patches  of  clay  and  gravel  often  contain  marine 
fossil  shells  of  species  still  living  in  the  Arctic  Seas,  and  belong 
ing  to  the  genera  Saxicava,  Astarte,  Cardium,  Nucula,  and 
others,  the  same  which  occur  in  what  we  call  the  northern  drift 
of  Ireland  and  Scotland.  Some  of  the  concretions  of  fine  clay, 
more  or  less  calcareous,  met  with  in  New  Hampshire,  in  this 


CHAP.  II.]  GEOLOGY. 

"  drift"  on  the  Saco  river,  thirty  miles  to  the  north  of  Ports 
mouth,  contain  the  entire  skeletons  of  a  fossil  fish  of  the  same 
species  as  one  now  living  in  the  Northern  Seas,  called  the  cape- 
Ian  (Mallotus  villosus),  about  the  size  of  a  sprat,  and  sold  abun 
dantly  in  the  London  markets,  salted  and  dried  like  herrings.  I 
obtained  some  of  these  fossils,  which,  like  the  associated  shells, 
show  that  a  colder  climate  than  that  now  prevailing  in  this  re 
gion  was  established  in  what  is  termed  "the  glacial  period." 
Mr.  Hayes  took  me  to  Kittery,  and  other  localities,  where  these 
marine  organic  remains  abound  in  the  superficial  deposits.  Some 
of  the  shells  are  met  with  in  the  town  of  Portsmouth  itself,  in 
digging  the  foundation  of  houses  on  the  south  bank  of  the  river 
Piscataqua.  This  was  the  most  southern  spot  (lat.  43°  6'  N.) 
to  which  I  yet  had  traced  the  fossil  fauna  of  the  boulder  period, 
retaining  here,  as  in  Canada,  its  peculiar  northern  characters, 
consisting  of  a  profusion  of  individuals,  but  a  small  number  of 
species  ;  and  a  great  many  of  those  now  abounding  in  the  neigh 
boring  sea  being  entirely  absent.  It  is  only  farther  to  the  south, 
and  near  the  extreme  southern  limit  of  the  drift,  or  boulder  clay, 
as  at  Brooklyn,  in  Long  Island,  for  example,  that  a  mixture  of 
more  southern  species  of  shells  begin  to  appear,  just  as  Professor 
E.  Forbes  has  detected,  in  the  drift  of  the  south  of  Ireland,  the 
meeting  of  a  Mediterranean  and  Arctic  fauna. 

Every  where  around  Portsmouth  I  observed  that  superficial 
polish  in  the  rocks,  and  those  long,  straight,  grooves  or  furrows, 
which  I  before  alluded  to  (p.  18),  as  having  been  imprinted  by 
icebergs  on  the  ancient  floor  of  the  ocean.  By  the  inland  posi 
tion  of  these  fossil  shells  of  recent  species,  the  geologist  can  prove 
that,  at  times  comparatively  modern  in  the  earth's  history,  the 
larger  part  of  New  England  and  Canada  lay  for  ages  beneath 
the  waters  of  the  sea,  Lake  Champlain  and  the  valley  of  the 
St.  Lawrence  being  then  gulfs,  and  the  White  Mountains  an 
island.*  But  it  is  a  curious  fact  that  we  also  discover  along  this 
same  eastern  coast  signs  no  less  unequivocal  of  partial  subsidence 
of  land  at  a  period  still  more  recent.  The  evidence  consists  of 
swamps,  now  submerged  at  low  water,  containing  the  roots  and 
*  See  my  "Travels  in  N.  America,  1841-2,"  vol.  ii.  p.  142. 


34  SUBMARINE  FOREST.  [CHAP.  II. 

upright  stools  of  the  white  cedar  ( Cupressus  thyoides),  showing 
that  an  ancient  forest  must  once  have  extended  farther  seaward. 
One  of  these  swamps  we  passed  yesterday  at  Hampton,  on  the 
way  from  Boston  to  Portsmouth  ;  and  Mr.  Hayes  gave  me  speci 
mens  of  the  submarine  wood  in  as  fresh  a  state  as  any  occurring 
a  few  yards  deep  in  a  British  peat-bog. 

That  some  of  these  repositories  of  buried  trees,  though  geolo 
gically  of  the  most  modern  date,  may  really  be  of  high  antiquity, 
considered  with  reference  to  the  history  of  man,  I  have  no  doubt ; 
and  geologists  may,  by  repeated  observations,  ascertain  the  min 
imum  of  time  required  for  their  formation  previously  to  their  sub 
mergence.  Some  extensive  cedar-swamps,  for  example,  of  the 
same  class  occur  on  the  coast  near  Cape  May,  in  the  southern 
extremity  of  the  State  of  New  Jersey,  on  the  east  side  of  Dela 
ware  Bay,  filled  with  trees  to  an  unknown  depth  ;  and  it  is  a 
constant  business  to  probe  the  soft  mud  of  the  swamp  with  poles 
for  the  purpose  of  discovering  the  timber.  When  a  log  is  found, 
the  mud  is  cleared  off,  and  the  log  sawed  up  into  proper  lengths 
for  shingles  or  boards.  The  stumps  of  trees,  from  four  to  five 
feet,  and  occasionally  six  feet  in  diameter,  are  found  standing 
with  their  roots  in  the  place  in  which  they  grew,  and  the  trunks 
of  aged  cedars  are  met  with  in  every  possible  position,  some  of 
them  lying  horizontally  under  the  roots  of  the  upright  stumps. 
Dr.  Bresley,  of  Dennis  Creek,  counted  1080  rings  of  annual 
growth  between  the  center  and  outside  of  a  large  stump  six  feet 
in  diameter,  and  under  it  lay  a  prostrate  tree,  which  had  fallen 
and  been  buried  before  the  tree  to  which  the  stump  belonged  first 
sprouted.  This  lower  trunk  was  five  hundred  years  old,  so  that 
upward  of  fifteen  centuries  were  thus  determined,  beyond  the 
shadow  of  a  doubt,  as  the  age  of  one  small  portion  of  a  bog,  the 
depth  of  which  is  as  yet  unknown. 

Mr.  Hayes  drove  me  in  his  carriage  through  woods  of  fir  on 
both  banks  of  the  Piscataqua,  where  the  ground  was  covered 
with  that  fragrant  shrub,  the  candleberry  (Myrica  cerifem),  the 
wax  of  which,  derived  from  its  shining  black  berries,  is  used  for 
making  candles.  The  odor  of  its  leaves  resembles  that  of  our 
bog-myrtle  (Myrica  gale).  The  barberry,  also  (Berberis  vul- 


CHAP.  II.]  WILD  PLANTS.— SWALLOWS.  35 

garis),  although  not  an  indigenous  plant,  is  very  abundant  and 
ornamental  in  the  woods  here.  It  has  overrun,  in  modern  times, 
the  eastern  shores  of  New  England,  and  made  its  way  many 
miles  inland,  to  the  great  annoyance  of  the  agriculturists.  Some 
naturalists  wonder  how  it  can  spread  so  fast,  as  the  American 
birds  refuse,  like  the  European  ones,  to  feed  on.  its  red  berries  : 
but  if  it  be  true  that  cattle,  sheep,  and  goats  occasionally  browse 
on  this  shrub,  there  is  no  mystery  about  the  mode  of  its  migration, 
for  the  seeds  may  be  sown  in  their  dung.  The  aromatic  shrub 
called  sweet  fern  (Comptonia  asplenifolia),  forms  nearly  as  large 
a  proportion  of  the  undergrowth  here  as  does  the  real  fern  (Pteris) 
in  some  of  our  English  forests.  I  have  seen  this  part  of  North 
America  laid  down  in  some  botanical  maps  as  the  region  of  asters 
and  solidagos  ;  and  certainly  the  variety  and  abundance  of  golden 
rods  and  asters  is  at  this  season  very  striking,  although  a  white 
everlasting  ( GnafaMuin)  is  almost  equally  conspicuous.  Among 
other  shrubs,  I  saw  the  poison-ivy  (Rkus  radicans),  a  species  of 
sumach,  growing  on  rocks  and  walls.  It  has  no  effect  on  some 
people,  but  the  slightest  touch  causes  an  eruption  on  the  skin  of 
others.  A  New  England  botanist  once  told  me  that,  by  way 
of  experiment,  he  rubbed  his  arm  with  the  leaves,  and  they  gave 
rise  to  a  painful  swelling,  which  was  long  in  subsiding. 

In  Mr.  Hayes's  garden  at  Portsmouth  were  some  of  the  smaller 
white-bodied  swallows  or  martins  (Hirundo  viridis),  protected 
from  their  enemy,  the  larger  martin  (Hirundo  purpurea),  by 
having  small  holes  made  for  them  in  flower-pots,  which  the 
others  could  not  pass  through.  The  larger  kind,  or  house-martin, 
is  encouraged  every  where,  small  wooden  boxes  being  made  for 
them  on  roofs  or  on  the  tops  of  poles,  resembling  pigeon-houses, 
which  may  often  be  seen  on  the  top  of  a  sign-post  before  a  New 
England  inn.  They  are  useful  in  chasing  away  birds  of  prey 
from  the  poultry-yard  ;  and  I  once  saw  a  few  of  them  attacking 
a  large  hawk.  But  I  suspect  they  are  chiefly  favored  for  mere 
amusement  sake,  arid  welcomed,  like  our  swallows,  as  the  mes 
sengers  of  spring,  on  their  annual  return  from  the  south.  It  is 
pleasing  to  hear  them  chattering  with  each  other,  and  to  mark 
their  elegant  forms  and  bluish-black  plumage,  or  to  watch  them 


36  GLACIAL  GROOVES.  [CHAP.  II 

on  the  wing1,  floating  gently  in  the  air,  or  darting  rapidly  after 
insects.  Thousands  of  these  birds,  with  their  young,  died  in 
their  nests  in  the  spring  of  1836,  during  a  storm  of  cold  rain, 
which  lasted  two  weeks,  and  destroyed  the  insects  throughout 
the  states  of  New  York  and  New  England.  The  smaller  species 
(Hifundo  vi/ridis)  then  regained  possession  of  their  old  haunts, 
occupying  the  deserted  houses  of  the  more  powerful  species,  which, 
like  the  house-sparrow  in  Europe,  has  followed  the  residence  of 
man. 

The  sun  was  very  powerful  at  noon  ;  but  the  severity  of  the 
cold  here  in  winter  is  so  great,  that  a  singular  effect  is  produced 
in  the  Piscataqua  when  the  thermometer  sinks  to  15°  below  zero. 
The  tide  pours  into  the  estuary  a  large  body  of  salt  water  par 
taking  of  the  warmer  temperature  of  the  gulf  stream,  and  this 
water,  coming  into  the  colder  atmosphere,  smokes  like  a  thermal 
spring,  giving  rise  to  dense  fogs. 

I  had  been  desirous  of  making  the  acquaintance  of  Mr.  Hayes, 
in  consequence  of  having  read,  before  I  left  England,  an  excellent 
paper  published  by  him  in  the  Boston  Journal  of  Natural  History, 
for  1844,  on  the  Antarctic  Icebergs,  considered  as  explanatory 
of  the  transportation  of  rocky  masses,  and  of  those  polished  rocks 
and  glacial  grooves  and  strise  before  alluded  to.  He  had  derived 
his  information  from  experienced  men  engaged  in  the  southern 
whale  fisheries,  principally  merchants  of  New  Bedford,  Massa 
chusetts,  and  Stonington,  Rhode  Island.  On  looking  over  his 
original  MS.  notes,  I 'found  he  had  omitted  to  print  some  parti 
culars  of  the  evidence,  which  I  consider  of  no  small  interest  as 
throwing  light  on  a  class  of  geological  appearances  hitherto 
thought  least  reconcilable  with  the  ordinary  course  of  nature. 
As  to  the  carriage  of  huge  fragments  of  rock  for  many  hundreds 
of  miles,  from  one  region  to  another,  such  transportation  was 
formerly  appealed  to  by  writers  now  living  as  among  the  marvels 
of  the  olden  time,  resembling  the  feats  of  the  fabulous  ages,  and 
as  much  transcending  the  powers  of  nature  in  these  degenerate 
days,  as  the  stone  hurled  by  Hector  against  the  Grecian  gate, 
exceeded  in  weight  and  size  what  could  now  be  raised  from  the 
ground  by  two  of  the  strongest  of  living  men  (oloi  vvv  (3poroi). 


CHAP.  II.]  ORGANIC  REMAINS  IN  ICE.  37 

But  after  reading  the  accounts  given  by  Sir  James  Ross  and  Captain 
Wilkes,  of  the  transfer  of  erratics  by  ice,  from  one  point  to  another 
of  the  southern  seas,  these  traveled  boulders  begin  to  be  regarded 
quite  as  vulgar  phenomena,  or  matters  of  every-day  occurrence. 

There  still  remain,  however,  among  the  wonders  of  the  polar 
regions,  some  geological  monuments  which  appear  sufficiently 
anomalous  when  we  seek  to  explain  them  by  modern  analogies. 
I  refer  to  the  preservation  in  ice  of  the  carcasses  of  extinct  species 
of  quadrupeds  in  Siberia  ;  not  only  the  rhinoceros  originally  dis 
covered,  with  part  of  its  flesh,  by  Pallas,  and  the  mammoth 
afterward  met  with  on  the  Lena  by  Adams,  but  still  more 
recently  the  elephant  dug  up  by  Midderidorf,  September,  1846, 
which  retained  even  the  bulb'  of  the  eye  in  a  perfect  state,  and 
which  is  now  to  be  seen  in  the  museum  at  Moscow.^ 

In  part  of  the  unpublished  evidence  collected  by  Mr.  Hayes, 
are  statements  which  may  perhaps  aid  us  in  elucidating  this  ob 
scure  subject ;  at  all  events  they  are  not  undeserving  of  notice, 
were  it  only  to  prove  that  nature  is  still  at  work  in  the  icy  regions 
enveloping  a  store  of  organic  bodies  in  ice,  which,  after  a  series 
of  geographical  and  climatal  changes,  and  the  extermination  of 
some  of  the  existing  cetacea,  might  strike  the  investigator  at  some 
remote  period  of  the  future  as  being  fully  as  marvelous  as  any 
monuments  of  the  past  hitherto  discovered.  The  first  extract, 
which  I  make,  with  Mr.  Hayes'  permission,  is  from  the  evidence 
of  Captain  Benjamin  Pendleton,  of  Stonington,  who,  from  his 
knowledge  of  the  South  Shetland  fisheries,  was  chosen  by  the 
American  government  to  accompany  the  late  exploring  expedition  to 
the  Antarctic  seas.  He  had  cruised  in  1820  and  1822  for  GOO 
miles  along  the  lofty  ice  cliffs  bounding  the  great  southern  conti 
nent.  He  says,  that  in  1821 ,  when  he  wished  to  bury  a  seaman 
in  one  of  the  South  Shetland  islands,  several  parties  of  twelve 
men  each,  were  set  to  dig  a  grave  in  the  blue  sand  and  gravel ; 
but  after  penetrating  in  nearly  a  hundred  places  through  six  or 
eight  inches  of  sand,  they  came  down  every  where  upon  solid 
blue  ice.  At  last  he  determined  to  have  a  hole  cut  in  the  ice, 
of  which  the  island  principally  consisted,  and  the  body  of  the  man 
*  See  "Principles  of  Geology,"  by  the  Author,  7th  ed.  1847,  p.  83. 


38  WHALE  DISCOVERED  IN  AN  ICEBERG.         [CHAP.  II. 

was  placed  in  it.  In  1822,  Captain  Barnham  dug  out  the  body 
from  the  ice,  and  found  the  clothes  and  flesh  perfectly  fresh  as 
when  they  were  buried. 

So  far  this  narrative  may  be  said  merely  to  confirm  and  to 
bear  out  another  published  by  Captain  Kendall,  of  our  navy,  in 
the  London  Geographical  Journal,  1830  (pp.  65,  66),  where  he 
relates  that  the  soil  of  Deception  Island,  one  of  the  South  Shet- 
lands,  consists  of  ice  and  volcanic  ashes  interstratified,  and  he 
discovered  there  the  body  of  a  foreign  sailor,  which  had  long 
been  buried,  with  the  flesh  and  all  the  features  perfectly  pre 
served.  Mr.  Darwin,  commenting  on  that  fact,  has  observed, 
that  as  the  icy  soil  of  Deception  Island  is  situated  between  lat. 
62°  and  63°  S.,  it  is  nearer  the  equator  by  about  100  miles  than 
the  locality  where  Pallas  first  found  the  frozen  rhinoceros  of  Si 
beria,  in  lat.  64°  N.* 

But  Captain  Pendleton  goes  on  to  relate,  that  while  he  was 
in  Deception  Island  an  iceberg  was  detached  from  a  cliff  of  ice 
800  feet  high.  The  piece  which  fell  off  was  from  60  to  100  feet 
deep,  and  from  1500  to  3000  feet  in  length.  At  an  elevation  of 
about  280  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  part  of  a  whale  was 
seen  remaining  inclosed  in  the  ice-cliff,  the  head  and  anterior 
parts  having  broken  off  about  the  flippers  and  fallen  down  with 
the  detached  mass  of  ice.  The  species  was  what  the  whalers 
call  the  "  Sulphur-bottom,"  resembling  the  fin-back.  Captain 
Pendleton  contrived  to  get  out  the  portion  which  had  fallen,  and 
obtained  from  it  eight  or  ten  barrels  of  oil.  The  birds  for  a  long 
time  fed  upon  the  entrails.  This  fact  was  known  to  Captain 
Beck  and  others.  Captain  William  Pendleton,  another  whaler 
of  experience,  also  informs  Mr.  Hayes,  that  skeletons  of  whales 
had  been  met  with  in  the  South  Shetlaiids,  when  he  visited 
them,  300  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  Thomas  Ash  also 
saw,  on  "  Ragged  Island"  beach,  the  skeleton  and  some  of  the 
soft  parts  of  a  whale  many  feet  above  the  reach  of  the  highest 
tides.  Captain  William  Beck,  master  of  a  whaling  ship,  has 
seen  whales'  bones  and  carcasses  sixty  or  seventy  feet  above  the 
sea-level,  and  a  mile  and  a  half  from  the  water. 
*  Darwin's  Journal,  2d  ed.  p.  249. 


CHAP.  II.]  ICEBERGS.  39 

To  explain  how  the  bodies  and  skeletons  of  these  inhabitants 
of  the  deep,  whether  found  entombed  or  not  in  ice,  were  carried 
up  to  considerable  heights  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  appeared  to 
me  at  first  more  difficult  than  to  account  for  their  having  been 
included  in  solid  ice.  A  few  months  after  my  visit  to  Ports 
mouth  I  saw  Captain  Wilkes,  of  the  United  States  Exploring 
Expedition,  and  called  his  attention  to  the  problem.  He 
remarked,  that  the  open  sea  sometimes  freezes  round  the  Sand 
wich  Islands,  so  that  ships  can  not  approach  within  100  miles 
of  the  shore.  In  like  manner,  in  Antarctic  regions,  the  ocean 
often  freezes  over  the  base  of  a  cliff  formed  of  barrier  ice.  In 
all  these  cases,  the  sheet  of  ice,  however  continuous,  does  not 
adhere  to  the  land  or  the  barrier,  because  the  rise  and  fall  of  the 
tide,  however  slight,  causes  a  rent,  permitting  the  whole  mass  to 
move  up  and  down.  The  snow,  drifting  off  the  land  in  vast 
quantities  during  winter,  falls  over  the  cliffs  upon  the  frozen 
surface  of  the  sea,  until  its  weight  is  such  that  it  causes  the 
whole  mass  to  sink  ;  and  unless  the  winds  and  currents  happen 
to  float  it  off,  it  may  go  on  subsiding  till  it  acquires  a  great 
thickness,  and  may  at  last  touch  the  bottom.  Before  this  hap 
pens,  however,  it  usually  gets  adrift,  and,  before  it  has  done 
melting,  tumbles  over  or  capsizes  more  than  once. 

On  my  return  to  England,  in  1846,  I  described  the  same 
phenomena  to  my  friend  Dr.  Joseph  Hooker,  and  subsequently 
to  Sir  James  Ross,  and  they  both  of  them,  without  hearing 
Captain  Wilkes's  theory,  suggested  the  same  explanation,  having 
observed  that  a  great  sheet  of  ice  had  formed  in  the  sea  by  the 
freezing  of  melted  snow  on  the  southern  or  polar  side  of  every 
Antarctic  island.  If  the  carcass  of  a  dead  whale  be  thrown  up 
on  this  ice,  it  must  soon  be  buried  under  other  snow  drifted  from 
the  land,  and  will  at  length  be  inclosed  in  the  lower  part  of  an. 
iceberg,  formed  in  the  manner  before  described.  The  frequent 
overturning  or  reversal  of  position  of  these  great  masses,  arises 
from  the  temperature  of  the  water  at  the  depth  of  1000  or  1500 
feet,  to  which  they  frequently  descend,  being  much  warmer  than 
the  incumbent  air  or  more  superficial  water.  When  the  inferior 
or  submerged  portions  melt,  the  center  of  gravity  is  soon  changed  • 


40  ICEBERGS.  [CHAP.  II. 

and  a  magnificent  example  is  recorded  by  Sir  James  Ross  of  the 
capsizing  of  a  great  island  of  ice  near  Possession  Island,  in  lat. 
71°  56'  S.  What  had  previously  been  the  bottom  came  up 
and  rose  100  feet  above  the  surface  of  the  sea,  and  the  whole  of 
the  new  top  and  eastern  side  were  seen  to  be  covered  with  earth 
and  stones.  A  party  landed  on  it,  and  a  slight  .rocking  motion 
was  still  perceptible,  such  as  no  waves  or  swell  of  the  sea,  even 
in  a  storm,  are  ever  capable  of  imparting  to  such  large  icebergs.^ 
The  lower  down  the  carcass  of  the  whale  is  buried  in  the  original 
berg,  the  higher  up  will  it  be  raised  above  the  level  of  the  sea 
when  the  same  berg  has  turned  over. 

#  Sir  J.  Ross's  Voyage  to  Southern  Seas,  vol.  i.  pp.  195,  196. 


CHAPTER  III. 

Portland  in  Maine. — Kennebeo  River. — Timber  Trade. — Fossil  Shells  at 
Gardiner. — Augusta,  the  Capital  of  Maine. — Legal  Profession  :  Advo 
cates  and  Attorneys. — Equality  of  Sects. — Religious  Toleration. — Cal- 
vinistic  Theology. — Day  of  Doom. 

Sept.  25,  1845. — HERE  we  are  at  mid-day  fK-ing  along  at 
the  rate  of  twenty-five  and  occasionally  thirty  miles  an  hour,  on 
our  way  to  Portland,  the  chief  city  of  Maine.  It  was  only  yes 
terday  afternoon  that  we  left  Boston,  and  in  less  than  three 
hours  we  performed  what  would  have  been  formerly  reckoned  a 
good  day's  journey  of  forty-five  miles,  had  seen  at  Portsmouth 
some  collections  of  natural  history,  and  afterward  gone  to  a  ball. 
In  the  forenoon  of  this  day  I  have  made  geological  excursions  011 
both  banks  of  the  Piscataqua,  arid  before  dark  shall  have  sailed 
far  up  the  Kennebec.  It  is  an  agreeable  novelty  to  a  naturalist 
to  combine  the  speed  of  a  railway  and  the  luxury  of  good  inns 
with  the  sight  of  the  native  forest — the  advantages  of  civilization 
with  the  beauty  of  unreclaimed  nature — no  hedges,  few  plowed 
fields,  the  wild  plants,  trees,  birds,  and  animals  undisturbed. 

Cheap  as  are  the  fares,  these  railroads,  I  am  told,  yield  high 
profits,  because  the  land  through  which  they  run  costs  nothing. 
When  we  had  traversed  a  distance  of  about  sixty  miles,  the  cars 
glided  along  some  rails  over  the  wharf  at  Portland,  and  we  almost 
stepped  from  our  seats  on  to  the  deck  of  the  Huntress  steamer, 
which  was  ready  to  convey  us  to  the  mouth  of  the  Kennebec  river. 

After  threading  a  cluster  of  rocky  islands  adorned  with  fir  and 
birch  in  the  beautiful  Bay  of  Casco,  we  came  to  the  Sound,  and 
for  a  short  space  were  in  the  open  sea,  with  no  view  but  that  of 
a  distant  coast.  As  there  was  nothing  to  see,  we  were  glad  to 
be  invited  to  dinner,  and  were  conducted  to  the  gentlemen's 
cabin,  a  sort  of  sunk  story,  to  which  the  ladies,  or  the  women  of 
every  degree,  were,  according  to  the  usual  etiquette,  taken  down 
first,  and  carefully  seated  at  the  table  by  the  captain,  before  the 


42  NEW  ENGLAND  TRAVELING.  [CHAP.  III. 

gentlemen  were  admitted.  Above  this  apartment  where  we 
dined  was  the  ladies'  cabin,  and  above  that  the  upper  deck, 
where  we  sat  to  enjoy  the  prospect  as  we  approached  the  mouth 
of  the  Kennebec.  In  the  forepart  of  the  vessel,  on  this  upper 
deck,  is  a  small  room,  having  windows  on  all  sides,  where  the 
man  at  the  helm  is  stationed  ;  riot  at  the  stern,  as  in  our  boats, 
which  is  considered  by  the  Americans  as  a  great  improvement 
on  the  old  system,  as  the  steersman's  view  can  not  be  intercepted, 
and  the  passengers  are  never  requested  to  step  on  one  side  to 
enable  him  to^  see  his  way.  Directions  to  the  engineer,  instead 
of  being  transmitted  by  voice  through  an  intermediate  messenger, 
are  given  directly  by  one  or  more  loud  strokes  on  a  bell.  The 
fuel  used  is  anthracite,  the  absence  of  oxygen  being  compensated 
by  a  strong  current  of  air  kept  up  by  what  resembles  a  winnow- 
ing-machine,  and  does  the  work  of  a  pair  of  bellows. 

After  sailing  up  the  Kennebec  about  fifteen  miles  we  came  to 
Bath,  a  town  of  5000  souls,  chiefly  engaged  in  ship-building,  a 
branch  of  industry  in  which  the  State  of  Maine  ranks  first  in 
the  Union  ;  the  materials  consisting  of  white  oak  and  pine,  the 
growth  of  native  forests.  Large  logs  of  timber  squared,  and 
each  marked  with  the  owner's  name,  are  often  cast  into  the 
river,  sometimes  far  above  Augusta,  and  come  floating  down  100 
miles  to  this  place.  In  wrinter  many  of  them  get  frozen  into  the 
ice  and  imprisoned  for  six  or  seven  months,  until  the  late  spring 
releases  them,  and  then  not  a  few  of  them  are  carried  far  out 
into  the  Atlantic,  where  they  have  been  picked  up,  with  the 
owner's  name  still  telling  the  place  of  their  origin.  The  water 
is  salt  as  far  as  Bath,  above  which  it  is  fresh  and  freezes  over,  so 
as  to  allow  sleighs  and  skaters  to  cross  it  in  winter,  although  the 
influence  of  the  tide  extends  as  far  up  as  Augusta,  about  forty 
miles  above  Bath.  I  am  informed  that  the  whole  body  of  the 
ice  rises  and  falls,  cracking  along  the  edges  where  it  is  weakest. 
Over  the  fissures  planks  are  placed  to  serve  as  a  bridge,  or  snow 
is  thrown  in,  which  freezes,  and  affords  a  passage  to  the  central 
ice.  The  Kennebec,  besides  being  enlivened  by  the  "  lumber 
trade,"  is  at  this  season  whitened  with  the  sails  of  vessels  laden 
with  hay,  which  has  been  compressed  into  small  bulk  by  the 


CHAP.  III.]  THE  KENNEBEC.  43 

power  of  steam.  Many  of  these  merchantmen  are  destined  for 
New  York,  where  the  unusual  heat  and  drought  of  the  summer 
has  caused  a  scanty  crop  of  grass,  but  hundreds  are  bound  to  the 
distant  ports  of  Mobile  and  New  Orleans  ;  so  that  the  horses  of 
Alabama  and  Louisiana  are  made  to  graze  on  the  sweet  pastures 
of  Maine,  instead  of  the  coarser  and  ranker  herbage  of  the  south 
ern  prairies.  In  a  few  months  these  northern-built  ships  will 
bring  back  bales  of  cotton  for  factories  newly  established  by  Bos 
ton  capitalists,  and  worked  on  this  river  both  by  water  power 
and  steam.  Such  are  the  happy  consequences  of  the  annexation 
of  Louisiana  to  the  United  States.  But  for  that  event,  the  fa 
vorite  theories  of  political  economy  in  New  England,  and  the  duty 
of  protecting  native  industry,  would  have  interposed  many  a 
custom-house  and  high  tariff  bet\vreen  Maine  and  the  valley  of 
the  Mississippi. 

As  we  passed  Bath  a  large  eagle,  with  black  wings  and  a 
white  body,  was  seen  soaring  over  our  heads  ;  and,  a  few  miles 
above,  where  the  salt  and  fresh  water  meet,  seals  were  seen 
sporting  close  to  the  steamer.  The  Kermebec  is  said  to  abound 
in  salmon.  We  admired  the  great  variety  of  trees  on  its  banks  ; 
two  kinds  of  birch  with  larger  leaves  than  our  British  species, 
several  oaks  arid  pines,  the  hemlock  with  foliage  like  a  yew-tree, 
and  the  silver-fir,  and  two  species  of  maple,  the  sugar  or  rock 
maple  (Acer  saccharinuni),  and  the  white  (A.  dasycarpum), 
both  of  which  yield  sugar.  To  these  two  trees  the  beauty  and 
brilliancy  of  the  autumnal  tints  of  the  American  forests  are  due, 
the  rock  maple  turning  red,  purple  and  scarlet,  and  the  white, 
first  yellow,  and  then  red. 

We  were  conveyed  in  the  Huntress  to  Gardiner,  the  head  of 
steam- boat  navigation  here,  sixty-eight  miles  distant  from  Port 
land,  where  we  visited  the  country  house  of  Mr.  Gardiner,  whose 
family  gave  its  name  to  the  settlement.  It  is  built  in  the  style 
of  an  English  country  seat,  and  surrounded  by  a  park.  At  Mr. 
Allen's  I  examined,  with  much  interest,  a  collection  of  fossil 
shells  and  Crustacea,  made  by  Mrs.  Allen  from  the  drift  or  "  gla 
cial"  deposits  of  the  same  age  as  those  of  Portsmouth,  already 
described.  Among  other  remains  I  recognized  the  tooth  of  a 


44  FOSSIL  REMAINS.  [CHAP.  III. 

walrus,  similar  to  one  procured  by  me  in  Martha's  Vineyard,* 
and  other  teeth,  since  determined  for  me  by  Professor  Owen  as 
belonging  to  the  buffalo  or  American  bison.  These  are,  I  be 
lieve,  the  first  examples  of  land  quadrupeds  discovered  in  beds  of 
this  age  in  the  United  States.  The  accompanying  shells  consist 
ed  of  the  common  mussel  (Hfytilus  edulis),  Saxciava  rugosa, 
]\Iya  arenaria,  Pecten  Islandicus,  and  species  of  the  genera 
Astartc,  Nucula,  &c.  The  horizontal  beds  of  clay  and  sand 
which  contain  these  remains  of  northern  species,  and  which 
imply  that  the  whole  region  was  beneath  the  sea  at  no  distant 
period,  impart  to  the  scenery  of  the  country  bordering  the  Kerme- 
bec  its  leading  features.  The  deposit  of  clay  and  sand  is  170 
feet  thick  in  some  places,  and  numerous  valleys  70  feet  deep  are 
hollowed  out  of  it  by  every  small  stream.  At  Augusta  I  saw 
this  modern  tertiary  formation,  100  feet  thick,  resting  on  a  ledge 
of  mica  schist,  the  shells  being  easily  obtained  from  an  under 
mined  cliff  of  clay.  Tn  some  places,  as  at  Gardiner,  conical  hil 
locks,  chiefly  of  gravel,  about  fifty  feet  high,  and  compared  here, 
on  account  of  the  regularity  of  their  form,  to  Indian  mounds^ 
stand  isolated  near  the  river.  I  conceive  them  to  owe  their 
shape  to  what  the  geologists  term  "  denudation,"  or  the  action 
of  waves  and  currents,  which,  as  the  country  was  rising  gradu- 
al]y  out  of  the  sea,  removed  the  surrounding  softer  clay  arid  left 
these  masses  undestroyed.  They  would  offer  resistance  to  the 
force  of  moving  water  by  the  great  weight  and  size  of  their  com 
ponent  materials  ;  for  in  them  we  find  not  only  pebbles,  but 
many  large  boulders  of  granite  and  other  rocks. 

Mr.  Allen  drove  us  in  his  carriage  to  Augusta,  six  miles  from 
Gardiner,  and  200  miles  N.E.  of  Boston,  where  we  visited  the 
State  House,  handsomely  built  in  the  Grecian  style,  with  a  por 
tico  and  large  columns,  the  stone  used  being  the  white  granite  of 
this  country.  The  rooms  for  the  two  houses  of  the  legislature 
are  very  convenient.  I  was  shown  the  library  by  the  governor, 
who  called  my  attention  to  some  books  and  maps  on  geology,  and 
talked  of  a  plan  for  resuming  the  geological  survey  of  the  State, 
not  yet  completed. 

*  See  "  Travels,"  vol.  i.  p.  256. 


CHAP.  III.]  LEGAL  PROFESSION.  45 

Sept.  27. — Returned  by  the  Huntress  steamer  to  Portland, 
after  sailing  at  the  rate  of  fourteen  miles  an  hour.  On  board 
were  some  lawyers,  to  one  of  whom,  a  judge  in  the  State  of 
Maine,  Mr.  Gardiner  had  introduced  me.  The  profession  of  the 
law  is,  of  all  others  in  the  United  States,  that  which  attracts  to 
it  the  greatest  number  of  able  and  highly  educated  men,  not  only 
for  its  own  sake,  but  because  it  is  a  great  school  for  the  training 
up  of  politicians.  The  competition  of  so  many  practitioners 
cheapens  fees,  and,  although  this  is  said  to  promote  litigation,  it 
has  at  least  the  great  advantage  of  placing  the  poor  man  on  a 
more  equal  footing  with  the  rich,  as  none  but  the  latter  can 
attempt  to  assert  their  rights  in  countries  where  the  cost  of  a 
successful  law-suit  may  be  ruinous.  Practically,  there  is  much 
the  same  subdivision  of  labor  in  the  legal  profession  here  as  in 
England  ;  for  a  man  of  eminence  enters  into  partnership  with 
some  one  or  more  of  the  younger  or  less  talented  lawyers,  who 
play  the  part  assigned  with  us  to  junior  counsel  and  attorneys. 
There  are,  however,  no  two  grades  here  corresponding  to  barris 
ter  and  attorney,  from  the  inferior  of  which  alone  practitioners 
can  pass  in  the  regular  course  of  promotion  to  the  higher.  Every 
lawyer  in  the  United  States  may  plead  in  court,  and  address  a 
jury  ;  and,  if  he  is  successful,  may  be  raised  to  the  bench  :  but 
he  must  qualify  as  counselor,  in  order  to  be  entitled  to  plead  in 
the  Supreme  Courts,  where  cases  are  heard  involving  points  at 
issue  between  the  tribunals  of  independent  states.  The  line 
drawn  between  barrister  and  attorney  in  Great  Britain,  which 
never  existed  even  in  colonial  times  in  Massachusetts,  could  only 
be  tolerated  in  a  country  where  the  aristocratic  element  is  ex 
ceedingly  predominant.  In  the  English  Church,  where  seats  in 
the  House  of  Lords  are  held  by  the  bishops,  we  see  how  the  rank 
of  a  whole  profession  rnay  be  elevated  by  making  high  distinc 
tions  conferred  only  on  a  few,  open  to  all.  That,  in  like  man 
ner,  the  highest  honors  of  the  bar  and  bench  might  be  open 
without  diriment  to  the  most  numerous  class  of  legal  practition 
ers  in  Great  Britain,  seems  to  be  proved  by  the  fact,  that  occa 
sionally  some  attorneys  of  talent,  by  quitting  their  original  lino 
of  practice  and  starting  anew,  can  attain,  like  the  present  Chief 


46  EQUALITY  OF  SECTS.  [CHAP.  III. 

Justice  of  the  Common  Pleas,  to  places  of  the  first  dignity.  In 
Canada,  under  British  rule,  it  is  the  custom  to  grant  licenses  to 
the  same  individual  to  practice  indifferently  in  all  the  courts  as 
advocate,  solicitor,  attorney,  and  proctor.  When  we  consider 
the  confidential  nature  of  the  business  transacted  by  English  at 
torneys,  the  extent  of  property  committed  to  their  charge,  the 
manner  in  which  they  are  consulted  in  family  affairs  of  the  ut 
most  delicacy,  as  in  the  framing  of  marriage  contracts  and  wills, 
and  observe,  moreover,  how  the  management  of  elections  falls 
into  their  hands,  we  may  well  question  the  policy  of  creating  an 
artificial  line  of  demarkation  between  them  and  the  advocates, 
marked  enough  to  depress  their  social  rank,  and  to  deter  many 
y^ung  men  of  good  families,  who  can  best  afford  to  obtain  a  lib 
eral  education,  from  entering  the  most  profitable,  and,  in  reality, 
the  most  important  branch  of  the  profession. 

I  have  mentioned  the  Supreme  Courts ;  in  these,  in  each  state, 
cases  are  heard  involving  points  at  issue  between  two  independent 
jurisdictions  ;  and  in  order  to  preserve  uniformity  in  the  interpret 
ation  of  many  different  codes,  as  in  the  statutes  passed  from  time 
to  time  by  state  legislatures,  the  previous  decisions  of  courts  of 
law  are  referred  to,  and  the  authority  of  judges  of  high  repute  in 
any  part  of  the  Union,  and  even  in  Great  Britain,  frequently 
cited.  As  points  of  international  law  are  perpetually  arising 
between  so  many  jurisdictions,  the  Supreme  Courts  afford  a  fine 
field  for  the  exercise  of  legal  talent,  and  for  forming  jurists  oi 
enlarged  views. 

Portland,  with  15,000  inhabitants,  is  the  principal  city  of 
Maine  ;  gay  and  cheerful,  with  neat  white  houses,  shaded  by 
avenues  of  trees  on  each  side  of  the  wide  streets,  the  bright  sunny 
air  unsullied,  as  usual  in  New  England,  by  coal  smoke.  There 
are  churches  here  of  every  religious  denomination :  Congregation- 
alists,  Baptists,  Methodists,  Free-will  Baptists,  Universalists, 
Unitarians,  Episcopalians,  Roman  Catholics,  and  Quakers,  al] 
living  harmoniously  together.  The  late  governor  oPthe  state 
was  a  Unitarian  ;  and,  as  if  to  prove  the  perfect  toleration  of 
churches  the  most  opposed  to  each  other,  they  have  recently  had 
a  Honuui  Catholic  governor 


CHAP.  III.]  RELIGIOUS  TOLERATION.  47 

On  Sunday  we  accompanied  the  family  of  a  lawyer,  to  whom 
we  had  brought  letters,  to  a  Unitarian  church.  There  was 
nothing  doctrinal  in  the  sermon,  and,  among  other  indications  of 
the  altered  and  softened  feelings  of  the  sects  which  have  sprung 
from  the  old  Puritan  stock,  I  remarked  a  gilt  cross  placed  over 
the  altar.  The  officiating  minister  told  me  that  this  step  had 
been  taken  with  the  consent  of  the  congregation,  though  not  with 
out  the  opposition  of  some  of  his  elders.  The  early  Puritans  re 
garded  this  symbol  as  they  did  pictures  and  images,  as  the  badges 
of  superstition,  the  relics  of  the  idolatrous  religion  so  lately  re 
nounced  by  them  ;  and  it  is  curious  to  read,  in  the  annals  of  the 
first  colonists  at  Salem,  how,  in  1634,  the  followers  of  Roger 
Williams,  the  Brownist,  went  so  far  as  to  cut  that  "popish  em 
blem,"  the  red  cross,  out  of  the  royal  standard,  as  one  which  the 
train  bands  ought  no  longer  to  follow.^ 

During  my  first  visit  to  the  New  England  States,  I  was 
greatly  at  a  loss  to  comprehend  by  what  means  so  large  a  pop 
ulation  had  been  brought  to  unite  great  earnestness  of  religious 
feeling  with  so  much  real  toleration.  In  seeking  for  the  cause,  we 
must  go  farther  back  than  the  common  schools,  or  at  least  the 
present  improved  state  of  popular  education  ;  for  we  are  still  met 
with  the  question,  How  could  such  schools  be  maintained  by  the 
state,  or  by  compulsory  assessments,  on  so  liberal  a  footing,  in 
spite  of  the  fanaticism  and  sectarian  prejudices  of  the  vulgar  ? 
When  we  call  to  mind  the  religious  enthusiasm  of  the  early  Pu 
ritans,  and  how  at  first  they  merely  exchanged  a  servile  obedience 
to  tradition,  and  the  authority  of  the  Church,  for  an  equally  blind 
scripturalism,  or  implicit  faith  in  the  letter  of  every  part  of  the 
Bible,  acting  as  if  they  believed  that  God,  by  some  miraculous 
process,  had  dictated  all  the  Hebrew  words  of  the  Old,  and  all 
the  Greek  of  the  New  Testament ;  nay,  the  illiterate  among 
them  cherishing  the  same  superstitious  veneration  ibr  every  sylla 
ble  of  the  English  translation — how  these  religionists,  who  did 
riot  hesitate  to  condemn  several  citizens  to  be  publicly  whipped 
for  denying  that  the  Jewish  code  was  obligatory  on  Christians  as 
a  rule  of  life,  arid  who  were  fully  persuaded  that  they  alone  were  the 
#  Graham's  History  of  United  Stales,  vol.  i.  p.  227. 


48  CALVINISTIC  THEOLOGY.  [CHAP.  III. 

chosen  people  of  God,  should  bequeath  to  their  immediate  posterity 
such  a  philosophical  spirit  as  must  precede  the  organization  by  the 
whole  people  of  a  system  of  secular  education  acceptable  to  all, 
and  accompanied  by  the  social  and  political  equality, of  religious 
sects  such  as  no  other  civilized  community  has  yet  achieved — 
this  certainly  is  a  problem  well  worthy  of  the  study  of  every 
reflecting  mind.  To  attribute  this  national  characteristic  to  the 
voluntary  system,  would  be  an  anachronism,  as  that  is  of  com 
paratively  modern  date  in  New  England  ;  besides  that  the  de 
pendence  of  the  ministers  on  their  flocks,  by  transferring  ecclesi 
astical  power  to  the  multitude,  only  gives  to  their  bigotry,  if  they 
be  ignorant,  a  more  dangerous  sway.  So,  also,  of  universal  suf 
frage  ;  by  investing  the  million  with  political  power,  it  renders 
the  average  amount  of  their  enlightenment  the  measure  of  the 
liberty  enjoyed  by  those  who  entertain  religious  opinions  disap 
proved  of  by  the  majority.  Of  the  natural  effects  of  such  power, 
and  the  homage  paid  to  it  by  the  higher  classes,  even  where  the 
political  institutions  are  only  partially  democratic,  we  have 
abundant  exemplification  in  Europe,  where  the  educated  of  the 
laity  and  clergy,  in.  spite  of  their  comparative  independence  of 
the  popular  will,  defer  outwardly  to  many  theological  notions  of 
the  vulgar  with  which  they  have  often  no  real  sympathy. 

To  account  for 'the  toleration  prevailing  in  New  England  and 
the  states  chiefly  peopled  from  thence,  we  must  refer  to  a  com 
bination  of  many  favorable  circumstances,  some  of  them  of  ancient 
date,  and  derived  from  the  times  of  the  first  Puritan  settlers.  To 
these  I  shall  have  many  opportunities  of  alluding  in  the  sequel  ; 
but  I  shall  mention  now  a  more  modern  cause,  the  effect  of  which 
was  brought  vividly  before  my  mind,  in  conversations  with  sev 
eral  lawyers  of  Maine,  New  Hampshire,  and  Massachusetts, 
whom  I  fell  in  with  on  this  tour.  I  mean  the  reaction  against 
the  extreme  Calvinism  of  the  church  first  established  in  this  part 
of  America,  a  movement  which  has  had  a  powerful  tendency  to 
subdue  and  mitigate  sectarian  bitterness.  In  order  to  give  me 
some  -idea  of  the  length  to  which  the  old  Calvinistic  doctrines 
were  instilled  into  the  infant  mind,  one  of  my  companions  pre 
sented  me  with  a  curious  poem,  called  the  "  Day  of  Doom," 


CHAP.  III.]  « DAY  OF  DOOM."  49 

formerly  used  as  a  school  book  in  New  England,  and  which 
elderly  persons  known  to  him  had  been  required,  some  seventy 
years  ago,  to  get  by  rote  as  children.  This  task  must  have  occu 
pied  no  small  portion  of  their  time,  as  this  string  of  doggrel 
rhymes  makes  up  no  less  than  224  stanzas  of  eight  lines  each. 
They  were  written  by  Michael  Wigglesworth,  A.M.,  teacher  of 
the  church  of  Maiden,  New  England,  and  profess  to  give  a  poet 
ical  description  of  the  Last  Judgment.  A  great  array  of  Scrip 
ture  texts,  from,  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  is  cited  throughout 
in  the  margin  as  warranty  for  the  orthodoxy  of  every  dogma. 

Were  such  a  composition  now  submitted  to  any  committee  of 
school  managers  or  teachers  in  New  England,  they  would  not 
only  reject  it,  but  the  most  orthodox  among  them  would  shrewdly 
suspect  it  to  be  a  "  weak  invention  of  the  enemy,"  designed  to 
caricature,  or  give  undue  prominence  to,  precisely  those  tenets  of 
the  dominant  Calvinism  which  the  moderate  party  object  to,  as 
outraging  human  reason  and  as  derogatory  to  the  moral  attri 
butes  of  the  Supreme  Being.  Such,  however,  were  not  the  feel 
ings  of  the  celebrated  Cotton  Mather,  in  the  year  1705,  when  he 
preached  a  funeral  sermon  on  the  author,  which  I  find  prefixed 
to  my  copy  of  the  sixth  edition,  printed  in  1715.  On  this  occa 
sion  he  not  only  eulogizes  Wigglesworth,  but  affirms  that  the 
poem  itself  contains  "  plain  truths  drest  up  in  a  plain  meter  ;" 
and  further  prophesies,  that  "  as  the  {  Day  of  Doom'  had  been 
often  reprinted  in  both  Englands,  it  will  last  till  the  Day  itself 
shall  arrive."  Some  extracts  from  this  document  will  aid  the 
reader  to  estimate  the  wonderful  revolution  in  popular  opinion 
brought  about  in  one  or  two  generations,  by  which  the  harsher 
and  sterner  features  of  the  old  Calvinistic  creed  have  been  nearly 
eradicated.  Its  professors,  indeed,  may  still  contend  as  stoutly 
as  ever  for  the  old  formularies  of  their  hereditary  faith,  as  they 
might  fight  for  any  other  party  banner  ;  but  their  fanatical  de 
votion  to  its  dogmas,  and  their  contempt  for  all  other  Christian 
churches,  has  happily  softened  down  or  disappeared. 

The  poem  opens  with  the  arraignment  of  all  "  the  quick  and 
dead,"  who  are  summoned  before  the  throne  of  God,  and,  having 
each  pleaded  at  the  bar,  are  answered  by  their  Judge.  Some 

VOL,   I. — *C 


50  "  DAY  OF  DOOM."  [CHAP.  III. 

of  them  declare  that  the  Scriptures  are  "  so  dark,  that  they  have 
puzzled  the  wisest  men  ;"  others  that,  being  "  heathens,"  and 
having  never  had  "  the  Avritten  Word  preached  to  them,"  they 
are  entitled  to  pardon ;  in  reply  to  which,  the  metaphysical  sub 
tleties  of  the  doctrines  of  election  and  grace  are  fully  propound 
ed.  The  next  class  of  offenders  might  awaken  the  sympathies 
of  any  heart  not  protected  by  a  breastplate  of  theological  dog 
matism  : — 

"  Then  to  the  bar  all  they  drew  near 

Who  died  in  infancy, 
And  never  had,  or  good  or  bad, 
Effected  personally,"  &c. 

These   infants   remonstrate   against   the   hardship  of  having 
Adam's  guilt  laid  to  their  charge  : — 

"Not  we,  but  he,  ate  of  the  tree 
Whose  fruit  was  interdicted  ; 
Yet  on  us  all,  of  his  sad  fall, 
The  punishment's  inflicted." 

The  Judge  replies,  that  none  can  suffer  "  for  what  they  never 
did  :"— - 

(171.)        "But  what  you  call  old  Adam's  fall, 

And  only  his  trespass, 
You  call  amiss  to  call  it  his, 
Both  his  and  yours  it  was. 

(172.)        "He  was  designed,  of  all  mankind. 

To  be  a  public  head  ; 
A  common  root,  whence  all  should  shoot, 
And  stood  in  all  their  stead. 

"  He  stood  and  fell,  did  ill  and  well 

Not  for  himself  alone, 
But  for  you  all,  who  now  his  fall 

And  trespass  would  disown. 
(173.)        "  If  he  he  had  stood,  then  all  his  brood 

Had  been  established,"  &c. 
(174.)        "  Would  you  have  grieved  to  have  received 

Though  Adam  so  much  good?"  &c. 
"  Since  then  to  share  in  his  welfare 
You  would  have  been  content, 
You  may  with  reason,  share  in  his  treason, 
And  in  his  punishm^ :  " 


CHAP.  III.]  "  DAY  OF  DOOM."  51 

A  great  body  of  Scripture  texts  are  here  introduced  in  confirm 
ation  ;  but  the  children  are  told,  even  including  those  "  who  from 
the  womb  unto  the  tomb  were  straightway  carried,"  that  they 
are  to  have  "  the  easiest  room  in  hell :" — 

(181.)        "The  glorious  King,  thus  answering, 
They  cease,  and  plead  no  longer, 
Their  consciences  must  needs  confess 
His  reasons  are  the  stronger." 

The  pains  of  hell  and  the  constant  renovation  of  strength  to 
enable  the  "  sinful  wight"  to  bear  an  eternity  of  torment,  are 
then  dilated  upon  at  such  length,  and  so  minutely,  and  a  picture 
so  harrowing  to  the  soul  is  drawn,  as  to  remind  us  of  the  excel 
lent  observations  on  this  head  of  a  modern  New  England  divine. 
"It  is  not  wonderful,"  he  says,  "  that  this  means  of  subjugating 
the  mind  should  be  freely  used  and  dreadfully  perverted,  when 
we  consider  that  no  talent  is  required  to  inspire  fear,  and  that 
coarse  minds  and  hard  hearts  are  signally  gifted  for  this  work  of 
torture."  "It  is  an  instrument  of  tremendous  power,"  he  adds, 
"  enabling  a  Protestant  minister,  whilst  disclaiming  papal  pre 
tensions,  to  build  up  a  spiritual  despotism,  and  to  beget  in  those 
committed  to  his  guidance  a  passive,  servile  state  of  mind,  too 
agitated  for  deliberate  and  vigorous  thought."^ 

That  the  pious  minister  of  Maiden,  however,  had  no  desire  to 
usurp  any  undue  influence  over  his  panic-stricken  hearers,  is  very 
probable,  and  that  he  was  only  indulging  in  the  usual  strain  of 
the  preachers  of  his  time,  when  he  told  of  the  "  yelling  of  the 
damned,  as  they  were  burnt  eternally  in  the  company  of  devils," 
and  went  on  to  describe  how — 

"  God's  vengeance  feeds  the  flame 
With  piles  of  wood  and  brimstone  flood, 
That  none  can  quench  the  same." 

We  next  learn  that  the  peace  and  calm  blessedness  of  the 
saints  elect,  who  are  received  into  heaven,  is  not  permitted  to  be 
disturbed  by  compassion  for  the  damned  ;  mothers  and  fathers 
feeling  no  pity  for  their  lost  children  : — 

*  Channing's  Works,  London,  voL  iii.  p.  263, 


52  "DAY  OF  DOOM."  [CHAP.  III. 

"  The  godly  wife  conceives  no  grief, 

Nor  can  she  shed  a  tear. 
For  the  sad  fate  of  her  dear  mate 
When  she  his  doom  doth  hear." 

The  great  distinction  between  the  spirit  of  the  times  when 
these  verses  were  written  and  the  present  age,  appears  to  be  this, 
that  a  paramount  importance  was  then  attached  to  those  doctrinal 
points  in  which  the  leading  sects  differed  from  each  other,  whereas 
now  Christianity  is  more  generally  considered  to  consist  essen 
tially  in  believing  and  obeying  those  scriptural  precepts  on  which 
all  churches  agree. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Journey  from  Portland  to  the  White  Mountains. —  Plants. —  Churches, 
School-houses. — Temperance  Hotel. — Intelligence  of  New  Englanders. 
— Climate,  Consumption. — Conway. — Division  of  Property. — Every  Man 
his  own  Tenant. — A\\tumnal  Tints. — Bears  hybernating. — Willey  Slide. 
— Theory  of  Scratches  and  Grooves  on  Rocks. — Scenery. — Waterfalls 
and  Ravines. — The  Notch. — Forest  Trees  and  Mountain  Plants. — 
Fabyan's  Hotel. — Echo. 

Sept.  28,  1845. — LEAVING  Portland  and  the  sea-coast,  we 
now  struck  inland  in  a  westerly  direction  toward  the  White 
Mountains,  having  hired  a  carriage  which  carried  us  to  Standish. 
We  passed  at  first  over  a  low,  featureless  country,  but  enlivened 
by  the  brilliant  autumnal  coloring  of  the  foliage,  especially  the 
bright  red,  purple,  and  yellow  tints  of  the  maple.  The  leaves 
of  these  trees  and  of  the  scrub  oak  had  been  made  to  change 
color  by  the  late  frost  of  the  10th  of  this  month.  On  the  borders 
of  the  road,  on  each  side,  mixed  with  the  fragrant  "  sweet  fern," 
we  saw  abundance  of  the  Spircea  tomentosa,  its  spike  of  purplish 
flowers  now  nearly  faded.  The  name  of  "  hard  hack"  was  given 
to  it  by  the  first  settlers,  because  the  stalk  turned  the  edge  of 
the  mower's  scythe.  There  were  also  golden  rods,  everlastings, 
and  asters  in  profusion ;  one  of  the  asters  being  called  "  frost 
blow,"  because  flowering  after  the  first  frost.  We  also  gathered 
on  the  ground  the  red  fruit  of  the  checkerberry  (Gaulteria  pro 
cumbent),  used  in  New  England  to  flavor  sweetmeats.  By  the 
side  of  these  indigenous  plants  was  the  common  English  sell-heal 
(Prunella  vulgaris),  the  mullein  ( Verbascum  tliapsus),  and  other 
flowers,  reminding  me  of  the  remark  of  an  American  botanist, 
that  New  England  has  become  the  garden  of  European  weeds  ; 
so  that  in  some  agricultural  counties  near  the  coast,  such  as  Essex 
in  Massachusetts,  the  exotics  almost  outnumber  the  native  plants. 
It  is,  however,  found,  that  the  farther  we  travel  northward, 
toward  the  region  where  North  America  and  Europe  approach 


54  CHURCHES.— SCHOOL-HOUSES.  [CHAP.  IV 

each  other,  the  proportion  of  plants  specifically  common  to  the 
two  continents  is  constantly  on  the  increase  ;  whereas  in  passing 
to  the  more  southern  states  of  the  Union,  we  find  almost  every 
indigenous  species  to  be  distinct  from  European  plants. 

Although  the  nights  are  cold,  the  sun  at  mid-day  is  very  hot, 
the  contrast  of  temperature  in  the  course  of  each  twenty-four 
hours  being  great,  like  that  of  the  summer  and  winter  of  this 
climate. 

We  journeyed  on  over  very  tolerable  roads  without  paying 
turnpikes,  one  only,  I  am  told,  being  established  in  all  Maine. 
The  expenses  of  making  and  repairing  the  highways  are  defrayed 
by  local  taxes,  a  surveyor  being  appointed  for  each  district.  We 
went  through  the  villages  of  Gorham,  Standish,  Baldwin,  Hiram, 
and  Bloomfield,  to  Conway,  and  then  began  to  enter  the  mount 
ains,  the  scenery  constantly  improving  as  we  proceeded.  Here 
and  there  we  saw  Indian  corn  cultivated,  but  the  summer  of 
Maine  and  New  Hampshire  is  often  too  short  to  bring  this  grain 
to  maturity. 

Usually,  in  a  single  village,  we  saw  three,  four,  or  five 
churches,  each  representing  a  different  denomination  ;  the  Con- 
gregationalists,  Baptists,  Methodists,  and  now  and  then,  though 
more  rarely,  the  Unitarians.  Occasionally,  in  some  quiet  spot 
where  two  village  roads  cross,  we  saw  a  small,  simple  building, 
and  learned  that  it  was  the  free  or  common  school  provided  by 
law,  open  to  all,  not  accepted  as  a  bounty,  but  claimed  as  a  right, 
where  the  children  of  rich  and  poor,  high  and  low,  and  of  every 
sect,  meet  upon  perfect  equality.  It  is  a  received  political  maxirn 
here,  that  society  is  bound  to  provide  education,  as  well  as  security 
of  life  and  property,  for  all  its  members. 

One  evening,  as  we  were  drawing  near  to  a  straggling  village, 
in  the  twilight,  we  were  recommended  by  a  traveler,  whom  we 
had  met  on  the  road,  to  take  up  our  quarters  at  a  temperance 
hotel,  where,  he  said,  "  there  would  be  no  loafers  lounging  and 
drinking  drams  in  the  bar-room."  We  looked  out  for  the  sign, 
and  soon  saw  it,  surmounted  by  a  martin-house  of  four  stories, 
each  diminishing  in  size  from  the  bottom  to  the  top,  but  all  the 
apartments  now  empty,  the  birds  having  taken  flight,  warned  by 


CHAP.  IV.]  TEMPERANCE  HOTEL.  55 

the  late  frost.  "We  had,  indeed,  been  struck  with  the  dearth  of 
the  feathered  tribe  in  Maine  at  this  season,  the  greater  number 
of  birds  being  migratory.  As  soon  as  our  carriage  stopped  at 
the  door,  we  were  ushered  by  the  host  and  his  wife  into  a  small 
parlor,  where  we  found  a  blazing  wood  fire.  It  was  their  private 
sitting-room  at  times,  when  they  had  no  guests,  and  on  the  table 
were  books  on  a  variety  of  subjects,  but  most  of  them  of  a  reli 
gious  or  serious  character,  as  Bishop  Watson's  Apology  in  reply 
to  Tom  Paine.  We  saw,  also,  a  treatise  on  Phrenology,  styled 
"  The  only  True  Philosophy,"  and  Shakspeare,  and  the  poems 
of  Cowper  and  Walter  Scott.  In  each  window  were  placed  two 
chairs,  not  ready  to  be  occupied,  as  they  would  be  in  most  coun 
tries,  but  placed  face  to  face,  or  with  their  fronts  touching  each 
other,  the  usual  fashion  in  New  England. 

On  one  of  the  walls  was  seen,  in  a  gilt  frame,  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  with  all  the  signatures  of  the  subscribers,  sur 
rounded  by  vignettes  or  portraits  of  all  the  ten  presidents  of  the 
United  States,  from  General  Washington  to  Mr.  Tyler.  On 
another  side  of  the  room  was  a  most  formidable  likeness  of 
Daniel  Webster,  being  an  engraving  published  in  Connecticut. 
Leaning  over  the  portrait  of  the  great  statesman,  is  represented 
an  aged  man  holding  a  lantern  in  his  hand,  and,  lest  the  mean 
ing  of  so  classical  an  allusion  should  be  lost,  we  read  below — 

"  Diogenes  his  lantern  needs  no  more, 
An  honest  man  is  found,  the  search  is  o'er." 

While  supper  was  preparing,  I  turned  over  a  heap  of  news 
papers,  of  various  shades  of  politics.  One  of  them  contained  a 
spirited  reply  to  the  leading  article  of  an  extreme  democratic 
journal,  which  had  enlarged  on  a  favorite  text  of  the  popular 
party,  "  The  whole  of  Oregon  is  ours."  In  another  I  saw,  in 
large  type,  "  The  continent,  the  whole  continent  down  to  the 
isthmus ;"  so  that,  before  Texas  is  yet  fairly  annexed,  the 
imagination  of  the  "  more  territory"  zealots  has  incorporated  all 
Mexico,  if  not  Central  America,  into  the  Union.  In  the  obitu 
aries  were  recorded,  as  usual,  the  names  of  several  "  revolutionary 
soldiers,"  aged  eighty-five  and  ninety,  and  I  spent  some  minutes 


56  PROVINCIAL  NEWSPAPERS.  [CHAP.  IV. 

in  wondering  why  they  who  fought  for  republican  independence 
had  been  so  frequently  rewarded  with  longevity,  till  it  occurred 
to  me  that,  he  who  took  the  field  before  1776  could  not  die  a 
juvenile  in  1845.  Among  other  electioneering  addresses,  I  read 
the  following  :  "  Fellow  democrats,  the  Philistines  are  upon  us, 
the  whigs  are  striving  to  sow  dissension  in  our  ranks,  but  our 
object  must  be  to  place  in  the  senate  a  sterling  democrat,"  &c. 
Such  an  appeal  to  electors  who  are  to  fill  up  a  vacancy  in  the 
more  conservative  branch  of  the  Congress  at  Washington,  is  suf 
ficiently  startling  to  an  Englishman.  Another  article,  headed, 
"Henry  Clay,  President  for  1848,"  seemed  a  most  premature 
anticipation  of  a  future  and  distant  contest,  Mr.  Polk  having  just 
been  chosen  for  the  next  four  years  as  first  magistrate,  after  many 
months  of  excitement  and  political  turmoil.  Yet,  upon  the  whole, 
the  provincial  newspapers  appear  to  me  to  abound  in  useful  and 
instructive  matter,  with  many  well-selected  extracts  from  modern 
publications,  especially  travels,  abstracts  of  lectures  on  temperance 
or  literary  and  scientific  subjects,  letters  on  agriculture,  or  some 
point  of  political  economy  or  commercial  legislation.  Even  in 
party  politics,  the  cheapness  of  the  innumerable  daily  and  weekly 
papers  enables  every  villager  to  read  what  is  said  on  more  than 
one  side  of  each  question,  and  this  has  a  tendency  to  make  the 
multitude  think  for  themselves,  and  become  well  informed  on 
public  affairs. 

We  happened  to  be  the  only  strangers  in  the  tavern,  and, 
when  supper  was  brought  in  by  the  landlord  and  his  wife,  they 
sat  down  beside  us,  begged  us  to  feel  at  home,  pressed  us  to  eat, 
and  evidently  considered  us  more  in  the  light  of  guests  whom 
they  must  entertain  hospitably,  than  as  customers.  Our  hostess, 
in  particular,  who  had  a  number  of  young  children  and  no  nurse 
to  help  her,  was  willing  to  put  herself  to  some  inconvenience 
rather  than  run  the  risk  of  our  feeling  lonely.  Their  manners 
were  pleasing,  and,  when  they  learned  that  we  were  from  En 
gland,  they  asked  many  questions  about  the  free-kirk  movement 
in  Scotland,  and  how  far  the  system  of  national  education  there 
differed  from  that  in  Prussia,  on  which  the  landlord  had  been 
reading  an  article  in  a  magazine.  They  were  greatly  amused 


CHAP.  IV.]      INTELLIGENCE  OF  NEW  ENGLANDERS.  57 

when  I  told  them  that  some  of  the  patriots  of  their  State  had 
betrayed  to  me  no  slight  sensitiveness  and  indignation  about  an 
expression  imputed  to  Lord  Palmerston  in  a  recent  debate  on  the 
Canadian  border-feud,  when  he  spoke  of  "  the  wild  people  of 
Maine." 

They  were  most  curious  to  learn  the  names  of  the  rocks  and 
plants  we  had  collected,  and  told  us  that  at  the  free-school  they 
had  been  taught  the  elements  of  geology  and  botany.  They  iff- 
forrned  us  that  in  these  rural  districts,  many  who  teach  in  the 
winter  months  spend  the  money  they  receive  for  their  salary  in 
educating  themselves  in  some  college  during  the  remainder  of 
the  year  ;  so  that  a  clever  youth  may  in  this  way  rise  from  the 
humblest  station  to  the  bar  or  pulpit,  or  become  a  teacher  in  a 
large  town.  Farm  laborers  in  the  State,  besides  being  boarded 
and  found  in  clothes,  receive  ten  dollars,  or  two  guineas,  a  month 
wages,  out  of  which  they  may  save  and  "  go  west,"  an  expression 
every  where  equivalent  to  bettering  one's  condition.  "  The  pros 
pect  of  heaven  itself,"  says  Cooper,  in  one  of  his  novels,  "  would 
have  no  charms  for  an  American  of  the  back-woods,  if  he 
thought  there  was  any  place  farther  west." 

I  remarked  that  most  of  the  farmers  and  laborers  had  pale 
complexions  and  a  care-worn  look.  "  This  was  owing  partly," 
said  the  landlord,  "  to  th*6  climate,  for  many  were  consumptive, 
and  the  changes  from  intense  heat  to  great  cold  are  excessive 
here;  and  party** to  the  ambitious,  striving  character  of  the 
natives,  who  <a^e  not  content  to  avoid  poverty,  but  expect,  and 
not  without  reason,  to  end  their  days  in  a  station  far  above  that 
from  which  they  start."  We  were  struck  with  the  almost  en 
tire  absence  of  the  negro  race  in  Maine,  the  winter  of  this  State 
being  ill  suited  to  them.  The  free  blacks  are  in  great  part 
paupers,  and  supported  by  the  poor  laws.  We  fell  in  with  a 
few  parties  of  itinerant  Indians,  roaming  about  the  country  like 
our  gipsies. 

Resuming  our  journey,  we  stopped  at  an  inn  where  a  great 
many  mechanics  boarded,  taking  three  meals  a  day  at  the  ordi 
nary.  They  were  well  dressed,  but  their  coarse  (though  clean) 
hands  announced  their  ordinary  occupation.  After  dinner  several 

c* 


58  DIVISION  OF  PROPERTY.  [CHAP.  IV. 

of  them  went  into  the  drawing-room,  where  some  "  ladies"  of 
their  own  class  were  playing  on  a  piano-forte  ;  other  mechanics 
were  reading  newspapers  and  books,  but  after  a  short  stay  they 
all  returned  to  their  work.  On  looking  at  the  books  they  had 
laid  down,  I  found  that  one  was  D'Israeli's  "  Coningsby,"  an 
other  Burns'  Poems,  and  a  third  an  article  just  reprinted  from 
Frazer's  Magazine,  on  "the  Policy  of  Sir  Robert  Peel." 

"  As  we  passed  through  Conway,  seeing  there  was  but  one 
meeting-house,  I  asked  to  what  denomination  it  belonged.  The 
reply  was,  "Orthodox."  I  went  on  to  say  that  the  place  seemed 
to  be  thriving.  My  informant  replied,  with  evident  satisfaction, 
"Yes,  and  every  man  here  is  his  own  tenant,"  meaning  that  they 
all  owned  the  houses  and  lands  they  occupied.  To  be  a  lessee,  in 
deed,  of  a  farm,  where  acres  may  be  bought  so  cheap,  is  a  rare 
exception,  to  the  general  rule  throughout  the  United  States. 
The  approach  to  an  equal  subdivision  of  property  among  children, 
is  not  the  result  here  of  a  compulsory  law,  as  in  France,  but  of 
custom  ;  and  I  was  surprised  to  find  how  much  the  partition  is 
modified,  according  to  the  individual  views  of  the  testator.  I  was 
assured,  indeed,  by  persons  on  whose  authority  I  could  depend, 
that  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  the  small  working  farmers  in  New 
England  do  not  leave  their  property  in  equal  shares  to  their 
children,  as  the  law  would  distribute  it  if  they  died  intestate. 
It  is  very  common,  for  example,  to  leave  the  sons  twice  as  much 
as  the  daughters,  and  frequently  to  give  the  eldest  son  the  land, 
requiring  him  to  pay  small  legacies  to  the  others."  In  the  case 
of  one  of  my  acquaintances,  where  the  sons  had  larger  shares 
than  the  daughters,  it  was  provided,  that  if  one  of  the  two 
brothers  died,  the  other  should  take  all  his  share.  As  a  general 
rule,  the  larger  the  estate  the  greater  is  the  inequality  of  partition 
among  the  children.  When  I  inquired  into  the  manner  in  which 
the  twelve  or  fourteen  largest  fortunes,  such  as  would  rank  as 
considerable  in  England,  had  been  bequeathed  in  Boston  and  its 
vicinity,  and  in  New  York,  I  was  astonished  to  learn  that  none 
of  them  had  been  left  in  equal  shares  among  the  children  by  men 
of  English  descent,  the  one  and  only  exception  being  that  of  a 
Frenchman.  In  the  more  newly  settled  states,  there  is  less  in- 


CHAP.  IV.]  EVERY  MAN  HIS  OWN  TENANT.  59 

equality  in  the  distribution  both  of  real  and  personal  property  ; 
but  this  is  doubtless  in  no  small  degree  connected  with  the  more 
moderate  size  of  the  fortunes  there.  The  ideas  entertained  in 
some  of  these  ruder  parts  of  the  country,  of  the  extreme  destitu 
tion  of  the  younger  children  of  aristocratic  families  in  Great 
Britain,  are  often  most  mistaken  and  absurd  ;  though  particular 
instances  in  Scotland,  springing  out  of  the  old  system  of  entails, 
may  have  naturally  given  rise  to  erroneous  generalizations.  It 
was  evident  to  me  that  few,  if  any,  of  these  critics,  had  ever  re 
garded  primogeniture  as  an  integral  portion  of  a  great  political 
system,  wholly  different  from  their  own,  the  merits  of  which  can 
not  fairly  be  tried  by  a  republican  standard. 

Both  in  New  England  and  in  the  State  of  New  York,  I  heard 
many  complaints  of  the  inadequacy  of  the  capital  belonging  to 
small  landed  proprietors  to  make  their  acres  yield  the  greatest 
amount  of  produce  with  the  least  expenditure  of  means.  They 
are  often  so  crippled  with  debt  and  mortgages,  paying  high  in 
terest,  that  they  can  not  introduce  many  improvements  in  agri 
culture,  of  which  they  are  by  no  means  ignorant.  Nevertheless, 
the  farmers  here  constitute  a  body  of  resident  yeomen,  industrious 
and  intelligent ;  absenteeism  being  almost  unknown,  owing  to  the 
great  difficulty  of  letting  farms,  and  the  owners  being  spread 
equally  over  the  whole  country,  to  look  after  the  roads  and 
village-schools,  and  to  see  that  there  is  a  post-office  even  in  each 
remote  mountain  hamlet.  The  pride  and  satisfaction  felt  by  men 
who  till  the  land  which  is  their  own,  is,  moreover,  no  small  ad 
vantage,  although  one  which  a  political  economist,  treating  solely 
of  the  production  of  wealth,  may  regard  as  lying  out  of  his  prov- 
vince.  As  a  make-weight,  however,  in  our  estimate  of  the  amount 
of  national  happiness  derived  from  landed  property,  it  is  not  to  be 
despised;  and  where  "every  man  is  his  own  tenant,"  as  at  Con- 
way,  the  evils  of  short  leases,  of  ejectments  on  political  grounds, 
or  disputes  about  poaching  and  crimes  connected  with  the  game- 
laws  are  unknown. 

After  passing  Conway,  we  had  fairly  entered  the  mountains 
of  New  Hampshire,  and  enjoyed  some  rambles  over  the  hills, 
delighted  with  the  gound  of  rushing  torrents  and  the  wildness  of 


60  •  FORESTS.— BEARS.  [CHAP.  TV. 

the  scenery.  I  had  sometimes  remarked  in  Norway  that  the 
birch  trees  are  so  equally  intermixed  with  dark  pines,  as  to  im 
part,  by  the  contrast  of  colors,  a  spotted  appearance  to  the  woods, 
not  always  picturesque  ;  but  here  I  saw  the  dark  green  hemlock 
in  one  place,  and  the  maples,  with  their  brilliant  autumnal  foliage 
in  another,  grouped  in  such  masses  on  the  steep  slopes  of  the  hills, 
as  to  produce  a  most  agreeable  effect.  There  were  many  birch 
trees,  with  their  white  bark,  and  oaks,  with  red  autumnal  tints, 
and  an  undergrowth  of  kalmia  out  of  flower,  but  still  conspicuous 
by  its  shining  leaves.  The  sweet  fern  (Comptonia)  no  longer 
appeared  on  this  high  ground,  and  was  replaced  by  the  true  fern, 
called  here  "  brake,"  being  our  common  English  species  (Pteris 
aquilind).  On  the  low  hills  of  granite  were  many  huge  angular 
fragments  of  that  rock,  fifteen,  and  some  of  them  twenty  feet  in 
diameter,  resting  on  heaps  of  sand.  They  were  of  a  light  gray 
color,  with  large  crystals  of  felspar,  and  reminded  me  of  the 
granite  of  Arran  in  Scotland.  As  we  followed  the  windings  of 
the  river  Saco,  I  observed,  in  the  bottom  of  the  valley,  alluvial 
terraces,  composed  of  clay,  sand,  gravel,  and  boulders,  forming 
flats  at  different  elevations,  as  we  see  in  many  parts  of  Scotland, 
and  other  mountain  valleys  in  Europe. 

Although  we  heard  much  talk  of  the  late  frost,  there  were  still 
abundant  signs  of  the  sun's  power,  such  as  large  grasshoppers, 
with  red  wings,  called  here  shakers,  and  tortoises  ( Testudo  picta) 
wandering  from  one  pond  to  another.  In  the  retired  paths  many 
squirrels  allowed  us  to  pass  very  near  to  them  without  being 
alarmed.  The  bear  once  extended,  like  the  beaver,  over  the 
whole  of  New  England ;  but  the  beaver  has  been  every  where 
extirpated,  and  the  bear  driven  into^the  mountains.  From  these 
retreats  they  still  make  annual  depredations  on  the  fields  of  Indian 
corn,  and  the  farmers  retaliate,  not  only  by  thinning  them  with 
their  rifles,  but  by  taking  what  some  sportsmen  would  consider 
a  very  unfair  advantage  over  them.  On  the  first  spring-like  day, 
Bruin,  who  has  been  hybernating  for  several  months  in  a  cave, 
ventures  out,  before  the  snow  has  quite  melted,  to  take  a  look  at 
the  country  ;  then  retires  again  to  his  hiding  place,  which  the 
hunter  discovers  by  following  his  foot  tracks  on  the  snow,  and 


CHAP.  IV.]  WILLEY  SLIDE.  61 

digs  him  out  of  his  hole.  Near  Bartlett  I  was  taken  to  see  the 
skeleton  of  a  bear  that  had  been  lately  killed.  The  farmers  told 
me  that  the  racoons  do  much  damage  here,  by  devouring  the  In 
dian  corn,  but  the  opossum  does  not  extend  so  far  to  the  north. 

On  the  second  day  after  leaving  Conway  we  entered  a  wild 
and  narrow  mountain  pass,  with  steep  declivities  on  both  sides, 
where  the  hills  can  not  be  less  than  1000  or  1500  feet  in  vertical 
height.  Here  the  famous  landslip,  called  the  Willey  Slide,  oc 
curred  in  August,  1826.  The  avalanche  of  earth,  stones,  and 
trees  occurring  after  heavy  rains,  was  so  sudden,  that  it  over 
whelmed  all  the  Willey  family,  nine  in  number,  who  would  have 
escaped  had  they  remained  in  their  humble  dwelling  ;  for,  just 
above  it,  the  muddy  torrent  was  divided  into  two  branches  by  a 
projecting  rock.  The  day  after  the  catastrophe  a  candle  was 
found  on  the  table  of  their  deserted  room,  burnt  down  to  the 
socket,  and  the  Bible  lying  open  beside  it. 

I  was  curious  to  examine  the  effects  of  this  and  other  slides 
of  the  same  date  in  the  White  Mountains,  to  ascertain  what  effect 
the  passage  of  mud  and  heavy  stones  might  have  had  in  furrow 
ing  the  hard  surfaces  of  bared  rocks  over  which  they  had  passed  ; 
it  having  been  a  matter  of  controversy  among  geologists,  how  far 
those  straight  rectilinear  grooves  and  scratches  before  alluded  to,* 
might  have  been  the  result  of  glacial  action,  or  whether  they  can 
be  accounted  for  by  assuming  that  deluges  of  mud  and  heavy 
stones  have  swept  over  the  dry  land.  A  finer  opportunity  of 
testing  the  adequacy  of  the  cause  last  mentioned  can  not  be  con 
ceived  than  is  afforded  by  these  hills  ;  for,  in  consequence,  appar 
ently,  of  the  jointed  structure  of  the  rocks  and  their  decomposition 
produced  by  great  variations  of  temperature  (for  they  are  subjected 
to  intense  summer  heat  and  winter's  cold  in  the  course  of  the 
year),  there  is  always  a  considerable  mass  of  superficial  detritus 
ready  to  be  detached  during  very  heavy  rains,  even  where  the 
steep  slopes  are  covered  with  timber.  Such  avalanches  begin 
from  small  points,  and,  after  descending  a  few  hundred  yards,  cut 
into  the  mountain  side  a  deep  trench,  which  becomes  rapidly 
broader  and  deeper,  and  they  bear  down  before  them  the  loftiest 
*  Ante,  p.  18. 


62  SCRATCHES  AND  GROOVES  ON  ROCKS.      [CHAP.  IV. 

trees,  and  the  soil  in  which  they  are  rooted.  Some  of  these 
masses  have  slid  two  or  three  miles,  with  an  average  breadth  of 
a  quarter  of  a  mile  ;  and  so  large  are  the  rocky  fragments,  that  I 
found  some  of  them,  which  came  down  in  the  Willey  Slide,  to 
measure  from  fourteen  to  twenty  feet  in  diameter.  I  also  ascer- 
trined  that  the  steep  slopes  of  bare  rock  over  which  they  had 
passed,  were  inclined,  in  some  instances,  at  angles  of  twenty  to 
thirty  degrees  with  the  horizon.  After  clambering  up  more  than 
400  feet  above  the  level  of  the  Saco,  on  its  right  bank,  I  reached 
a  space  of  naked  rock,  fifteen  feet  square,  over  which  my  guide, 
the  elder  Crawford,  told  me  that  the  whole  contents  of  the  Willey 
Slide  had  swept  in  1826  ;  which  was  indeed  evident,  for  it  lay 
in  the  direct  line  of  the  great  trench  cut  through  the  forest  above 
and  below. 

There  is  a  small  cataract  at  the  spot,  where  a  dyke  of  basalt 
and  greenstone,  four  or  five  feet  wide,  traverses  the  granite,  all 
the  rocks  being  smoothed  on  the  surface,  and  marked  with  some 
irregular  and  short  scratches  and  grooves  ;  but  not  such  as  re 
semble  in  continuity,  straightness,  or  parallelism,  those  produced 
by  a  glacier,  where  hard  stones,  which  grate  along  the  bottom, 
have  been  firmly  fixed  in  a  heavy  mass  of  ice,  so  that  they  can 
not  be  deflected  from  a  rectilinear  course. 

I  am  aware  that  glaciers  and  icebergs  are  not  the  only  means 
by  which  the  grooving  and  polishing  of  the  faces  of  rocks  may 
be  caused  ;  for  similar  effects  may  arise  on  the  sides  of  fissures 
where  stony  masses  have  been  rent  asunder,  and  moved  upward 
and  downward,  or  made  to  vibrate  during  earthquakes,  so  that 
the  opposite  walls  are  rubbed  against  each  other.  But  we  can 
not  attribute  to  this  cause  the  superficial  markings  now  commonly 
referred  to  glacial  action  in  Europe  and  North  America  ;  and 
what  I  saw  at  the  Willey  Slide,  and  other  places  in  the  White 
Mountains,  convinced  me  that  a  semi-fluid  mass  of  mud  and 
stones  must  always  have  too  much  freedom  of  motion,  and  is  too 
easily  turned  aside  by  every  obstacle  and  inequality  in  the  shape 
of  the  rocky  floor,  to  enable  it  to  sculpture  out  long  and  straight 
furrows. 

From  the  Willey  Slide  we  continued  our  way  along  the  bot- 


CHAP.  IV.]  FOREST  TREES.  63 

torn  of  the  narrow  valley  of  the  Saco,  listening  with  pleasure  to 
the  river  as  it  foamed  and  roared  over  its  stony  bed,  and  admir 
ing  two  water-falls,  broken  into  sheets  of  white  foam  in  their  de 
scent.  The  scene  became  more  grand  as  we  entered  the  defile 
called  the  Notch,  where,  although  the  sun  was  high,  the  lofty 
crags  threw  dark  shadows  across  our  path.  On  either  hand  were 
wild  and  nearly  perpendicular  precipices,  the  road,  on  the  side 
overhanging  the  Saco,  being  usually  protected  by  parapets  of 
stone  or  timber.  A  steep  ascent  led  us  up  to  a  kind  of  pass  or 
water-shed,  where  there  was  an  inn  kept  by  one  of  the  Crawford 
family,  well  known  in  this  region,  which  reminded  me  of  some 
of  those  hotels  perched  in  similar  wild  situations  in  the  Alps,  as 
on  the  Simplon  and  Grimsel.  We  learned  that  snow  had  fallen 
here  in  the  second  week  of  September,  and  the  higher  hills  had 
been  whitened  for  a  time  ;  but  they  are  now  again  uncovered. 
Already  the  elevation  has  produced  a  marked  change  in  the  veg 
etation — the  hemlock,  the  spruce,  the  balm  of  Gilead  fir  (Pinus 
bahamea),  and  the  white  pine,  beginning  to  form,  with  the  birch, 
a  large  proportion  of  the  forest  trees.  The  white  pine,  called  in 
England  the  Weymouth  pine  (Pinus  strobus),  is  the  most  mag 
nificent  in  size.  It  sometimes  attains  a  diameter  of  five  feet,  and 
a  height  of  150  feet,  both  here  and  in  other  parts  of  New  Hamp 
shire  and  Maine  ;  but  it  is  very  rare  to  meet  with  such  trees 
now,  the  finest  having  been  burnt  down  in  the  great  fires  which 
have  every  where  devastated  the  woods.  I  observed  the  boughs 
of  the  spruce  hung  with  a  graceful  white  lichen,  called  Old 
Man's  Beard  (Usnea  barbata),  a  European  species.  The  com 
mon  fern  (Pteris  aquilina),  now  covers  the  moist  ground  under 
the  dark  shade  of  the  woods,  and  all  the  rotting  trunks  of  fallen 
trees  are  matted  over  with  a  beautiful  green  carpet  of  moss, 
formed  almost  entirely  of  the  feathery  leaves  of  one  of  the  most 
elegant  of  the  tribe,  also  occurring  in  Scotland  (Hypnum  Crista 
castremis).  Several  kinds  of  club  moss  (Lycopodium],  which, 
like  the  Hypnum,  were  in  full  fructification,  form  also  a  con 
spicuous  part  of  the  herbage  ;  especially  one  species,  standing 
erect  like  a  miniature  tree,  whence  its  name,  L.  dendroideum, 
from  six  to  eight  inches  high. 


64  MOUNTAIN  PLANTS.— ECHO.  [CHAP.  IV. 

Oct.  5. — Penetrating  still  further  into  the  mountains,  we  es 
tablished  ourselves  in  pleasant  quarters  for  several  days  at  Fa- 
byan's  Hotel,  thirty-two  miles  from  Conway,  waiting  for  fine 
weather  to  ascend  Mount  Washington.  Whenever  the  rain 
ceased  for  a  few  hours  we  explored  the  lower  hills,  and  were  for 
tunate  enough  to  have,  as  a  companion  in  our  walks,  one  of  the 
ablest  botanists  in  America,  Mr.  William  Oakes,^  of  Ipswich, 
Massachusetts,  who  is  preparing  for  publication  a  fine  work  on 
the  Flora  of  the  White  Mountains.  In  one  of  our  excursions 
with  him  to  see  the  falls  of  the  river  Amoonosuc,  he  showed  us 
several  places  where  the  Linncea  borealis  was  growing,  now  in 
fruit.  I  had  seen  this  plant  in  flower  in  Nova  Scotia  in  July, 
1842,  but  was  not  prepared  to  find  it  extending  so  much  farther 
southward,  having  first  known  it  as  characteristic  of  Norway, 
and  of  great  Alpine  heights  in  Europe.  But  I  was  still  more 
surprised  when  I  learned,  from  Mr.  Oakes,  that  it  descends  even 
into  the  wooded  plains  of  New  Hampshire,  under  favor  of  a  long 
winter  and  of  summer  fogs,  near  the  sea.  What  is  most  singu 
lar,  between  Manchester  and  Cape  Anne,  lat  42°  30'  N.,  it  in 
habits  the  same  swamp  with  the  Magnolia  glauca.  The  arctic 
Linncea,  trailing  along  the  ground  and  protected  from  the  sun 
by  a  magnolia,  affords  a  curious  example  of  the  meeting  of  two 
plants  of  genera  characteristic  of  very  different  latitudes,  each  on 
the  extreme  limits  of  its  northern  or  southern  range. 

One  evening,  during  our  stay  here,  we  enjoyed  listening  to  the 
finest  mountain  echo  I  ever  heard.  Our  host,  Fabyan,  played  a 
few  clear  notes  on  a  horn,  which  were  distinctly  repeated  five 
times  by  the  echo,  in  softened  and  melodious  tones.  The  third 
repetition,  although  coming  of  course  from  a  greater  distance, 
was  louder  than  the  two  fi.rst,  which  had  a  beautiful  effect,  and 
may  be  caused  either  by  the  concave  form  of  the  rocks  being 
more  favorable  to  the  reflection  of  sound,  or  from  the  place  where 
we  stood  being,  in  reference  to  that  distant  spot,  more  exactly  in 
the  focus  of  the  ellipse. 

In  the  elevated  plain  at  the  foot  of  the  mountains  at  Fabyan's 

*  Since  writing  the  above,  I  have  heard,  with  deep  regret,  of  the  death 
of  this  amiable  and  accomplished  naturalist. 


CHAP.  IV.]  THE  GIANT'S  GRAVE.  65 

there  is  a  long  superficial  ridge  of  gravel,  sand,  and  boulders, 
having  the  same  appearance  as  those  mounds  which  are  termed 
"  osar"  in  Sweden.  It  is  a  conspicuous  object  on  the  plain,  and. 
is  called  the  Giant's  Grave  ;  but  in  general  such  geological  ap 
pearances  as  are  usually  referred  to  the  glacial  or  "  drift"  period 
are  rare  in  these  mountains  ;  and  I  looked  in  vain  for  glacial 
furrows  and  striae  on  a  broad  surface  of  smooth  granite  recently 
exposed  on  the  banks  of  the  Saco,  in  a  pit  where  gravel  had  been 
taken  out  for  the  repair  of  the  road.  How  far  the  rapid  decom 
position  of  the  granite  rocks,  owing  to  the  vast  range  of  annual 
temperature,  may  have  destroyed,  in  this  high  region,  any  mark 
ings  originally  imprinted  on  their  surface,  deserves  consideration. 


CHAPTER  V. 

Ascent  of  Mount  "Washington. — Mr.  Oakes. — Zones  of  Distinct  Vegetation. 
— Belt  of  Dwarf  Firs. — Bald  Region  and  Arctic  Flora  on  Summit. — View 
from  Summit. — Migration  of  Plants  from  Arctic  Regions. — Change  of 
Climate  since  Glacial  Period. — Granitic  Rocks  of  White  Mountains. — 
Franconia  Notch. — Revival  at  Bethlehem. — Millerite  Movement. — The 
Tabernacle  at  Boston. — Mormons. — Remarks  on  New  England  Fanati 
cism. 

Oct.  7,  1845. — AT  length,  with  a  fair  promise  of  brighter 
weather,  we  started  at  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning  for  the  sum 
mit  of  Mount  Washington.  Its  old  Indian  name  of  Agiocochook 
has  been  dropped,  as  too  difficult  for  Anglo-Saxon  ears  or  memo 
ries.  Its  summit  is  6225  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea  ;  and 
we  were  congratulated  on  the  prospect  of  finding  it,  at  so  late  a 
season,  entirely  free  from  snow.  Our  party  consisted  of  nine,  all 
mounted  on  well-trained  horses — Mr.  Oakes,  a  gentleman  and 
his  wife,  tourists  from  Maine,  a  young  New  England  artist,  my 
self,  my  wife,  and  three  guides. 

A  ride  of  seven  miles  brought  us  to  the  foot  of  the  mountain, 
and  we  then  began  to  thread  the  dark  mazes  of  the  forest,  through 
narrow  winding  paths,  often  crossing  and  re-crossing  the  bed  of 
the  same  torrent,  and  fording  its  waters,  which  occupied,  in  spite 
of  the  late  rains,  a  small  part  of  their  channel. 

The  first,  or  lowest  zone  of  the  mountain,  extending  from  its 
base  to  the  height  of  about  2000  feet,  and  4000  feet  above  the 
level  of  the  sea,  is  clothed  with  a  great  variety  of  wood.  Besides 
the  hemlock,  spruce,  Weymouth,  and  other  pines  before  men 
tioned,  there  is  the  beech  (Fagus  ferrugined],  three  kinds  of 
birch,  the  black,  the  yellow,  and  the  white  (Betula  lenta,  B. 
lutea,  and  B.  papyracea) ;  also  the  rock  or  sugar-maple  (Acer  sac- 
cJiarinum),  and  the  red  maple  (A.  rubrum},  exhibiting  autumnal 
tints  of  every  color,  from  orange  to  pale  yellow,  and  from  scarlet 
to  purple.  The  undergrowth  was  composed  in  part  of  a  Guelder- 


CHAP   V.]  VEGETATION.— DWARF  FIRS.  67 

rose  (Viburnum  lantanoides],  the  Mexican  laurustinus,  and  the 
service-tree  (Sorbus  americana),  with  Acer  montanum  and  Acer 
sPriatwn.  On  the  ground  we  saw  the  beautiful  dwarf  dogwood 
(Cornus  canadensis),  still  in  flower,  also  the  fruit  of  the  averin, 
or  cloud-berry,  here  called  mulberry  (Rubits  chamcemorus),  well 
known  on  the  Grampians,  and  the  wood-sorrel  (Oxalis  acetosella), 
in  great  quantity,  with  Gaultheria  hispidula.  There  were 
many  large  prostrate  trees  in  various  stages  of  decay,  and  out  of 
their  trunks  young  fir-saplings,  which  had  taken  root  on  the  bark, 
were  seen  growing  erect. 

We  put  up  very  few  birds  as  we  rode  along,  for  the  woods 
are  much  deserted  at  this  season.  A  small  lapwing,  with  a 
note  resembling  the  English  species,  flew  up  from  some  marshy 
ground ;  and  we  saw  a  blue  jay  and  a  brown  woodpecker  among 
the  trees,  and  occasionally  a  small  bird  like  a  tomtit  (Pants 
atrocapillus).  I  picked  up  one  land-shell  only  (Helix  tliyoides), 
and  was  surprised  at  the  scarcity  of  air-breathing  testacea  here 
and  elsewhere  in  New  England,  where  there  is  so  vigorous  a 
vegetation  and  so  much  summer  heat.  The  absence  of  lime  in 
the  granitic  rocks  is  the  chief  cause  ;  but  even  in  the  calcareous 
districts  these  shells  are  by  no  means  as  plentiful  as  in  correspond 
ing  latitudes  in  Europe. 

When  we  had  passed  through  this  lowest  belt  of  wood  the 
clouds  cleared  away,  so  that,  on  looking  back  to  the  westward, 
we  had  a  fine  view  of  the  mountains  of  Vermont  and  the  Camel's 
Hump,  and  were  the  more  struck  with  the  magnificent  extent  of 
the  prospect,  as  it  had  not  opened  upon  us  gradually  during  our 
ascent.  We  then  began  to  enter  the  second  region,  or  zone  of 
evergreens,  consisting  of  the  black  spruce  and  the  Pinus  balsa- 
mea,  which  were  at  first  mixed  with  other  forest  trees,  all 
dwarfed  in  height,  till  at  length,  after  we  had  ascended  a  few 
hundred  feet,  these  two  kinds  of  firs  monopolized  the  entire 
ground.  They  are  extremely  dense,  rising  to  about  the  height 
of  a  man's  head,  having  evidently  been  prevented  by  the  cold 
winds  from  continuing  their  upward  growth  beyond  the  level  at 
which  they  are  protected  by  the  snow.  All  their  vigor  seems 
to  have  been  exerted  in  throwing  out  numerous  strong  horizontal 


68  BALD  REGION.  [CHAP.  V. 

or  pendent  branches,  each  tree  covering  a  considerable  area,  ane» 
being  closely  interwoven  with  others,  so  that  they  surround  the 
mountain  with  a  formidable  hedge  about  a  quarter  of  a  mrlo 
broad.  The  innumerable  dead  boughs,  which,  after  growing  fox 
a  time,  during  a  series  of  milder  seasons,  to  a  greater  height, 
have  then  been  killed  by  the  keen  blast,  present  a  singular  ap 
pearance.  They  are  forked  and  leafless,  and  look  like  the  antlers 
of  an  enormous  herd  of  deer  or  elk.  This  thicket  opposed  a 
serious  obstacle  to  those  who  first  ascended  the  mountain  thirty 
years  ago.  Dr.  Francis  Boott,  among  others,  whose  description 
of  his  ascent  in  1816,  given  to  me  in  London  several  years 
before,  made  me  resolve  one  day  to  visit  the  scene,  was  com 
pelled,  with  his  companion,  Dr.  Bigelow,  to  climb  over  the  tops 
and  walk  on  the  branches  of  these  trees,  until  they  came  to  the 
bald  region.  A  traveler  now  passes  so  rapidly  through  the  open 
pathway  cut  through  this  belt  of  firs,  that  he  is  in  danger,  while 
admiring  the  distant  view,  of  overlooking  its  peculiarities.  The 
trees  become  gradually  lower  and  lower  as  you  ascend,  till  at 
length  they  trail  along  the  ground  only  two  or  three  inches  high  ; 
and  I  actually  observed,  at  the  upper  margin  of  this  zone,  that 
the  spruce  was  topped  in  its  average  height  by  the  common  rein 
deer  moss  (Lichen  range ferinus).  According  to  Dr.  Bigelow,^ 
the  upper  edge  of  the  belt  of  dwarf  firs  is  at  the  height  of  4443 
feet  above  the  sea.  After  crossing  it  we  emerged  into  the  bald 
region,  devoid  of  wood,  and  had  still  to  climb  1800  feet  higher, 
before  arriving  at  the  summit.  Here  our  long  cavalcade  was 
seen  zigzagging  its  way  in  single  file  up  a  steep  declivity  of 
naked  rock,  consisting  of  gneiss  and  mica  schist,  but  principally 
the  latter  rock  intermixed  with  much  white  quartz.  The  masses 
of  quartz  are  so  generally  overgrown  with  that  bright-colored 
yellowish-green  lichen,  so  common  on  the  Scotch  mountains 
(Lichen  geographicus),  that  the  whole  surface  acquires  a  cor 
responding  tint,  visible  from  a  great  distance.  This  highest 
region  is  characterized  by  an  assemblage  of  Alpine  or  Arctic 
plants,  now  no  longer  in  flower,  and  by  a  variety  of  mosses  and 

*  See  his  excellent  account  of  an  ascent  of  Mount  Washington  in  1816, 
Boston  Medical  Journal,  vol.  v.  p.  321. 


CHAP.  V.]  ARCTIC  FLORA.  69 

lichens  specifically  identical  with  those  of  Northern  Europe. 
Among  these,  we  saw  on  the  rocks  the  Parmelia  centrifuga,  a 
lichen  common  in  Sweden,  but  not  yet  met  with  in  Great  Britain, 
of  a  greenish-white  color,  which,  commencing  its  growth  from  a 
point,  gradually  spreads  on  all  sides,  and  deserts  the  central  space. 
It  then  assumes  an  annular  form,  and  its  reddish-brown  shields 
of  fructification,  scattered  over  the  margin,  remind  one,  though 
on  a  miniature  scale,  of  those  "  fairy  rings"  on  our  English  lawns, 
which  appear  to  be  unknown  in  America,  and  where  fungi,  or 
mushrooms  are  seen  growing  in  a  circle. 

The  flora  of  the  uppermost  region  of  Mount  Washington  con 
sists  of  species  which  are  natives  of  the  cold  climate  of  Labrador, 
Lapland,  Greenland,  and  Siberia;  and  are  impatient,  says  Bige- 
low,  of  drought,  as  well  as  of  both  extremes  of  heat  and  cold ; 
they  are  therefore  not  at  all  fitted  to  flourish  in  the  ordinary 
climate  of  New  England.  But  they  are  preserved  here,  during 
winter,  from  injury,  by  a  great  depth  of  snow,  and  the  air  in 
summer  never  attains,  at  this  elevation,  too  high  a  temperature, 
while  the  ground  below  is  always  cool.  When  the  snow  melts, 
they  shoot  up  instantly  with  vigor  proportioned  to  the  length  of 
time  they  have  been  dormant,  rapidly  unfold  their  flowers,  and 
mature  their  fruits,  and  run  through  the  whole  course  of  their 
vegetation  in  a  few  weeks,  irrigated  by  clouds  and  mist. 

Among  other  Alpine  plants,  we  gathered  on  the  summit 
Menziesia  cerulea,  and  Rhododendron  laponicum,  both  out  of 
flower ;  and  not  far  below,  Azalea  procumbens.  Mr.  Oakes 
pointed  out  to  me,  in  a  rent  several  hundred  feet  above  the  lower 
margin  of  the  bald  region,  a  spruce  fir  growing  in  the  cleft  of  a 
rock,  where  it  was  sheltered  from  the  winds,  clearly  showing 
that  the  sudden  cessation  of  the  trees  does  not  arise  from  mere 
intensity  of  cold.  We  found  no  snow  on  the  summit,  but  the 
air  was  piercing,  and  for  a  time  we  were  enveloped  in  a  cloud 
of  dense  white  fog,  which,  sailing  past  us,  suddenly  disclosed  a 
most  brilliant  picture.  On  the  slope  of  the  mountain  below  us, 
were  seen  woods  warmly  colored  with  their  autumnal  tints,  and 
lighted  up  by  a  bright  sun  ;  and  in  the  distance  a  vast  plain, 
stretching  eastward  to  Portland,  with  many  silver  lakes,  and 


70  MIGRATION  OF  PLANTS.  [CHAP.  V 

beyond  these  the  ocean  and  blue  sky.  It  was  like  a  vision  seen  in 
the  clouds,  and  we  were  occasionally  reminded  of  "  the  dissolving 
views,"  when  the  landscape  slowly  faded  away,  and  then,  in  a 
few  minutes,  as  the  fog  dispersed,  regained  its  strength  as  gradual 
ly,  till  every  feature  became  again  clear  and  well  defined. 

We  at  length  returned  to  the  hotel  in  the  dusk  of  the  evening, 
much  delighted  with  our  excursion,  although  too  fatiguing  for  a 
lady,  my  wife  having  been  twelve  hours  on  horseback.  If  an 
inn  should  be  built  at  the  foot  of  the  mountain,  the  exploit  will 
be  comparatively  an  easy  one,  and  in  a  few  years  a  railway  from 
Boston,  only  150  miles  distant  (100  miles  of  it  being  already 
completed),  will  enable  any  citizen  to  escape  from  the  summer 
heat,  and,  having  slept  the  first  night  at  this  inn,  enjoy,  the  next 
morning,  if  he  is  a  lover  of  botany,  the  sight  of  a  variety  of  rare 
and  beautiful  Arctic  plants  in  full  flower,  besides  beholding  a  suc 
cession  of  distinct  zones  of  vegetation,  scarcely  surpassed  on  the 
flanks  of  Mount  Etna  or  the  Pyrenees. 

If  we  attempt  to  speculate  on  the  manner  in  which  the  pecu 
liar  species  of  plants  now  established  on  the  highest  summits  of 
the  White  Mountains,  were  enabled  to  reach  those  isolated  spots, 
while  none  of  them  are  met  with  in  the  lower  lands  around,  or 
for  a  great  distance  to  the  north,  we  shall  find  ourselves  engaged 
in  trying  to  solve  a  philosophical  problem,  which  requires  the 
aid,  not  of  botany  alone,  but  of  geology,  or  a  knowledge  of  the 
geographical  changes  which  immediately  preceded  the  present 
state  of  the  earth's  surface.  We  have  to  explain  how  an  Arctic 
flora,  consisting  of  plants  specifically  identical  with  those  which 
now  inhabit  lands  bordering  the  sea  in  the  extreme  north  of 
America,  Europe,  and  Asia,  could  get  to  the  top  of  Mount 
Washington.  Now  geology  teaches  us  that  the  species  living 
at  present  on  the  earth  are  older  than  many  parts  of  our  existing 
continents  ;  that  is  to  say,  they  were  created  before  a  large  part 
of  the  existing  mountains,  valleys,  plains,  lakes,  rivers,  and  seas 
were  formed.  That  such  must  be  the  case  in  regard  to  the 
island  of  Sicily,  I  announced  my  conviction  in  1833,  after  first 
returning  from  that  country.*  And  a  similar  conclusion  is  no 
*  Principles  of  Geology,  1st  edition,  vol.  iii.  chap.  9. 


CHAP.  V.]  MIGRATION  OF  PLANTS.  71 

less  obvious  to  any  naturalist  who  has  studied  the  structure  of 
North  America,  and  observed  the  wide  area  occupied  by  the 
modern  or  glacial  deposits  before  alluded  to,*  in  which  marine 
fossil  shells  of  living  but  northern  species  are  entombed.  It  is 
clear  that  a  great  portion  of  Canada,  and  the  country  surround 
ing  the  great  lakes,  was  submerged  beneath  the  ocean  when 
recent  species  of  mollusca  flourished,  of  which  the  fossil  remains 
occur  more  than  500  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea  near  Mon 
treal.  I  have  already  stated  that  Lake  Champlain  was  a  gulf 
of  the  sea  at  that  period,  that  large  areas  in  Maine  were  under 
water,  and,  I  may  add,  that  the  White  Mountains  must  then 
have  constituted  an  island,  or  group  of  islands.  Yet,  as  this 
period  is  so  modern  in  the  earth's  history  as  to  belong  to  the 
epoch  of  the  existing  marine  fauna,  it  is  fair  to  infer  that  the 
Arctic  flora  now  contemporary  with  man  was  then  also  estab 
lished  on  the  globe. 

A  careful  study  of  the  present  distribution  of  animals  and 
plants  over  the  globe,  has  led  nearly  all  the  best  naturalists  to 
the  opinion  that  each  species  had  its  origin  in  a  single  birth-place, 
and  spread  gradually  from  its  original  center,  to  all  accessible 
spots  fit  for  its  habitation,  by  means  of  the  powers  of  migration 
given  to  it  from  the  first.  If  we  adopt  this  view,  or  the  doctrine 
of  "  specific  centers,"  there  is  no  difficulty  in  comprehending  how 
the  crypto gamous  plants  of  Siberia,  Lapland,  Greenland,  andj 
Labrador  scaled  the  heights  of  Mount  Washington,  because  the 
sporules  of  the  fungi,  lichens,  and  mosses  may  be  wafted  through 
the  air  for  indefinite  distances,  like  smoke ;  and,  in  fact,  heavier 
particles  are  actually  known  to  have  been  carried  for  thousands 
of  miles  by  the  wind.  But  the  cause  of  the  occurrence  of  Arctic 
plants  of  the  phcenogamous  class  on  the  top  of  the  New  Hamp 
shire  mountains,  specifically  identical  with  those  of  remote  Polar 
regions,  is  by  no  means  so  obvious.  They  could  not,  in  the 
present  condition  of  the  earth,  effect  a  passage  over  the  inter 
vening  low  lands,  because  the  extreme  heat  of  summer  and  cold 
of  winter  would  be  fatal  to  them.  Even  if  they  were  brought 
from  the  northern  parts  of  Asia,  Europe,  and  America,  and 
#  Ante,  p.  33. 


72  CHANGE  OF  CLIMATE.  [CHAP.  V. 

thousands  of  them  planted  round  the  foot  of  Mount  Washington, 
they  would  never  be  able,  in  any  number  of  years,  to  make  their 
way  to  its  summit.  We  must  suppose,  therefore,  that  originally 
they  extended  their  range  in  the  same  way  as  the  flowering 
plants  now  inhabiting  Arctic  and  Antarctic  lands  disseminate 
themselves.  The  innumerable  islands  in  the  Polar  seas  are 
tenanted  by  the  sarme  species  of  plants,  some  of  which  are  con 
veyed  as  seeds  by  animals  over  the  ice  when  the  sea  is  frozen  in 
winter,  or  by  birds  ;  while  a  still  larger  number  are  transported 
by  floating  icebergs,  on  which  soil  containing  the  seeds  of  plants 
may  be  carried  in  a  single  year  for  hundreds  of  miles.  A  great 
body  of  geological  evidence  has  now  been  brought  together,  to 
some  of  which  I  have  adverted  in  a  former  chapter  ,*  to  show 
that  this  machinery  for  scattering  plants,  as  well  as  for  carrying 
erratic  blocks  southward,  and  polishing  and  grooving  the  floor  of 
the  ancient  ocean,  extended  in  the  western  hemisphere  to  lower 
latitudes  than  the  White  Mountains.  When  these  last  still 
constituted  islands,  in  a  sea  jphilled  by  the  melting  of  floating  ice, 
we  may  assume  that  they  •vfrere  covered  entirely  by  a  flora  like 
that  now  confined  to  the  Uppermost  or  treeless  region  of  the 
mountains.  As  the}contin*fet  grew  by  the  slow  upheaval  of  the 
land,  and  the  islands  gai$p  in  height,  and  the  climate  around 
their  base  grew  milder/pfe  Arctic  plants  would  retreat  to  higher 
and  higher  zones,,  .awd  finally  occupy  an  elevated  area,  which 
probably  had  been  at  first,  or  in  the  glacial  period,  always  covered 
with  perpetual  snow.  Meanwhile  the  newly-formed  plains  around 
the  base  of  the  mountain,  to  which  northern  species  of  plants 
could  not  spread,  would  be  occupied  by  others  migrating  from  the 
south,  and  perhaps  by  many  trees,  shrubs,  and  plants  then  first 
created,  and  remaining  to  this  day  peculiar  to  North  America.! 

The  period  when  the  White  Mountains  ceased  to  be  a  group 
of  islands,  or  when,  by  the  emergence  of  the  surrounding  low 

*  Ante,  p.  17. 

t  For  speculations  on  analogous  botanical  and  geographical  changes  in 
Europe,  the  reader  may  refer  with  advantage  to  an  excellent  essay  by 
Professor  Edward  Forbes,  on  the  Origin  of  the  British  Fauna  and  Flora, 
Memoirs  of  Geol.  Survey  of  Great  Britain,  vol.  i.  p.  336.  1846. 


CHAP.  V.]  GRANITE  ROCKS  73 

lands,  they  first  became  connected  with  the  continent,  is,  as  we 
have  seen,  of  very  modern  date,  geologically  speaking.  It  is, 
in  fact,  so  recent  as  to  belong  to  the  epoch  when  species  now 
contemporaneous  with  man  already  inhabited  this  planet.  But 
if  we  attempt  to  carry  our  retrospect  still  farther  into  the  past, 
and  to  go  back  to  the  date  when  the  rocks  themselves  of  the 
White  Mountains  originated,  we  are  lost  in'  times  of  extreme 
antiquity.  No  light  is  thrown  on  this  inquiry  by  embedded 
organic  remains,  of  which  the  strata  of  gneiss,  mica  schist,  clay- 
slate,  and  quartzite  are  wholly  devoid.  These  masses  are 
traversed  by  numerous  veins  of  granite  and  greenstone,  which 
are  therefore  newer  than  the  stratified  crystalline  rocks  which 
they  intersect  ;  and  the  abrupt  manner  in  which  these  veins 
terminate  at  the  surface  attests  how  much  denudation  or  removal 
by  water  of  solid  matter  has  taken  place.  Another  question  of 
a  chronological  kind  may  yet  deserve  attention,  namely,  the  epoch 
of  the  movements  which  threw  the  beds  of  gneiss  and  the  associ 
ated  rocks  into  their  present  bent,  disturbed,  and  vertical  positions. 
This  subject  is  also  involved  in  considerable  obscurity,  although 
it  seems  highly  probable  that  the  crystalline  strata  of  New  Hamp 
shire  acquired  their  internal  arrangement  at  the  same  time  as  the 
fossiliferous  beds  of  the  Appalachian  or  Alleghany  chain  :  and 
we  know  that  they  assumed  their  actual  strike  and  dip  sub 
sequently  to  the  origin  of  the  coal  measures,  which  enter  so  largely 
into  the  structure  of  that  chain. 

From  Fabyan's  Inn,  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Washington,  wo 
traveled  about  twenty-five  miles  westward  to  Bethlehem,  and 
thence  southward  to  the  Franconia  Notch,  a  deep  and  picturesque 
ravine  in  the  mountains  of  granite.  On  the  way  I  conversed 
with  the  driver  of  our  carriage  about  the  village  churches,  arid, 
being  very  communicative,  he  told  me  he  was  a  Free-will  Baptist, 
but  had  only  become  a  Christian  five  years  ago,  when  he  was 
awakened  from  a  state  of  indifference  by  a  revival  which  took 
place  near  Bethlehem.  This  meeting,  he  said,  was  got  up  ,'j.ud 
managed  by  the  Methodists  ;  but  some  Baptists,  and  one  ortho 
dox  (Independent  or  Congrcgationalist)  minister  had  assisted,  in. 
all  sixteen  ministers,  and  for  twenty-one  days  in  succession  there 

VOL.   T. D 


74  REVIVAL  AT  BETHLEHEM.  [CHAP.  V. 

had  been  prayers  and  preaching  incessantly  from  morning  to 
night.  I  had  already  seen  in  a  New  York  paper  the  following 
advertisement  :  "A  protracted  meeting  is  now  in  progress  at  the 

church  in  Street.  There  have  been  a  number  of 

conversions,  and  it  is  hoped  the  work  of  grace  has  but  just  com 
menced.  Preaching  every  evening  :  seats  free."  I  was  surprised 
to  hear  of  the  union  of  ministers  of  more  than  one  denomination 
on  this  occasion,  and,  on  inquiry,  was  told  by  a  Methodist,  that 
110  Episcopalians  would  join,  "  because  they  do  not  sufficiently 
rely  on  regeneration  and  the  new  man."  It  appears,  indeed,  to 
be  essential  to  the  efficacy  of  this  species  of  excitement,  that  there 
should  be  a  previous  belief  that  each  may  hope  at  a  particular 
moment  "  to  receive  comfort,"  as  they  term  it,  or  that  their  con 
version  may  be  as  sudden  as  was  that  of  St.  Paul.  A  Boston 
friend  assured  me  that  when  he  once  attended  a  revival  sermon, 
he  heard  the  preacher  describe  the  symptoms  which  they  might 
expect  to  experience  on  the  first,  second,  and  third  day  previous 
to  their  conversion,  just  as  a  medical  lecturer  might  expatiate  to 
his  pupils  on  the  progress  of  a  well-known  disease  ;  and  "  the 
complaint,"  he  added,  "  is  indeed  a  serious  one,  and  very  con 
tagious,  when  the  feelings  have  obtained  an  entire  control  over 
the  judgment,  and  the  new  convert  is  in  the  power  of  the 
preacher.  He  himself  is  often  worked  up  to  such  a  pitch  of 
enthusiasm,  as  to  have  lost  all  command  over  his  own  heated 
imagination." 

It  is  the  great  object  of  the  ministers  who  officiate  on  these 
occasions  to  keep  up  a  perpetual  excitement ;  but  while  they  are 
endeavoring  by  personal  appeals  to  overcome  the  apathy  of  dull, 
slow,  and  insensible  minds,  they  run  the  risk  of  driving  others,  of 
weaker  nerves  and  a  more  sensitive  temperament,  who  are  sitting 
on  "  the  anxious  benches,"  to  the  very  verge  of  distraction. 

My  friend,  the  driver,  was  evidently  one  of  a  slow  and  unexcit- 
able  disposition,  and  had  been  led  for  the  first  time  in  his  life  to 
think  seriously  on  religious  matters  by  what  he  heard  at  the 
great  preaching  near  Bethlehem  ;  but  it  is  admitted,  and  deplored 
by  the  advocates  of  revivals,  that  after  the  application  of  such 
violent  stimulants  there  is  invariably  a  leaction,  and  what  the-) 


CHAP.  V.j  MILLERITE  MOVEMENT.  75 

call  a  flat  or  dead  season.  The  emotions  are  so  strong  as  to 
exhaust  both  the  body  and  mind  ;  and  it  is  creditable  to  the  New 
England  clergy  of  all  sects,  that  they  have  in  general,  of  late 
years,  almost  entirely  discontinued  such  meetings. 

At  the  Franconia  hotel  I  first  heard  of  the  recent  fanatical 
movement  of  the  Millerites,  or  followers  of  one  Miller,  who  taught 
that  the  millennium,  or  final  destruction  of  the  world,  would 
come  to  pass  last  year,  or  on  the  23d  day  of  October,  1844.  A 
farmer  from  the  village  of  Lisbon  told  me  that,  in  the  course  of 
the  preceding  autumn,  many  of  his  neighbors  would  neither  reap 
their  harvest  of  Indian  corn  and  potatoes,  nor  let  others  take  in 
the  crop,  saying  it  was  tempting  Providence  to  store  up  grain  for 
a  season  that  could  never  arrive,  the  great  catastrophe  being  so 
near  at  hand.  These  infatuated  people,  however,  exerted  them 
selves  very  diligently  to  save  what  remained  of  their  property 
when  the  non-fulfillment  of  the  prophecy  dispelled  their  delusion. 
In  several  townships  in  this  and  the  adjoining  States,  the  parochial 
officers,  or  "  select  men,"  interfered,  harvesting  the  crops  at  the 
public  expense,  and  requiring  the  owners,  after  the  23d  October, 
to  repay  them  for  the  outlay. 

I  afterward  heard  many  anecdotes  respecting  the  Millerite 
movement,  not  a  few  of  my  informants  speaking  with  marked 
indulgence  of  what  they  regarded  simply  as  a  miscalculation  of 
a  prophecy  which  must  be  accomplished  at  no  distant  date.  In 
the  township  of  Concord,  New  Hampshire,  I  was  told  of  an  old 
woman,  who,  on  paying  her  annual  rent  ibr  a  house,  said,  "  I  guess 
this  is  the  last  rent  you  will  get  from  me."  Her  landlord  re 
marked,  "  If  so,  I  hope  you  have  got  your  robes  ready ;"  alluding 
to  the  common  practice  of  the  faithful  to  prepare  white  ascension 
robes,  "  for  going  up  into  heaven."  Hearing  that  there  had  been 
advertisements  from  shops  in  Boston  and  elsewhere  to  furnish 
any  number  of  these  robes  on  the  shortest  notice,  I  took  for  grant 
ed  that  they  were  meant  as  a  hoax  ;  but  an  English  bookseller, 
residing  at  New  York,  assured  me  that  there  was  a  brisk  de 
mand  for  such  articles,  even  as  far  south  as  Philadelphia,  and 
that  he  knew  two  individuals  in  New  York,  who  sat  up  all  night 
in  their  shrouds  on  the  22d  of  October. 


76  MILLER1TE  MOVEMENT.  [CHAP.  V. 

A  caricature,  published  at  Boston,  represented  Miller,  the 
originator  of  the  movement,  ascending  to  heaven  in  his  robes  ; 
but  his  chaplain,  who  was  suspected  of  not  being  an  enthusiast, 
but  having  an  eye  to  the  dollars  freely  thrown  into  "the  Lord's 
Treasury,"  was  weighed  down  by  the  money  bags,  and  the  devils 
were  drawing  him  in  an  opposite  direction.  To  keep  up  the 
excitement,  several  newspapers  and  periodicals  were  published  in 
the  interest  of  this  sect,  and  I  was  told  of  several  Methodist 
preachers  who  gave  themselves  up  in  full  sincerity  to  the  delu 
sion.  I  asked  an  artisan  who  sat  next  me  in  a  railway  car  in 
Massachusetts,  whether  he  had  heard  any  talk  of  the  millennium 
in  his  district.  "  Certainly,"  he  said  ;  "  I  remember  a  tonguey 
jade  coming  down  to  our  town,  and  many  women,  and  even 
some  smart,  likely  men,  were  carried  away  by  her  preaching. 
And,  when  the  day  was  past,  Miller  explained  how  they  had 
made  a  miscalculation,  and  that  the  end  of  the  world  would 
come  three  days  later ;  and  after  that  it  was  declared  it  would 
happen  in  the  year  1847,  which  date  was  the  more  certain,  be 
cause  all  the  previous  computations  had  failed,  and  that  era  alone 
remained  to  satisfy  the  prophecy." 

In  a  subsequent  part  .of  our  tour,  several  houses  were  pointed 
out  to  us,  between  Plymouth  (Massachusetts)  and  Boston,  the 
owners  of  which  had  been  reduced  from  ease  to  poverty  by  their 
credulity,  having  sold  their  all  toward  building  the  Tabernacle, 
in  which  they  were  to  pray  incessantly  for  six  weeks  previous  to 
their  ascension.  Among  other  stories  which,  whether  true  or 
not,  proved  to  me  how  much  fraud  was  imputed  to  some  of  the 
leaders,  I  was  told  of  a  young  girl  who,  having  no  money,  was 
advised  to  sell  her  necklace,  which  had  been  presented  to  her  by 
her  betrothed.  The  jeweler,  seeing  that  she  was  much  affected 
at  parting  with  her  treasure,  and  discovering  the  object  of  the 
sale,  showed  her  some  silver  forks  and  spoons,  on  which  he  was 
about  to  engrave  the  initials  of  the  very  minister  whose  dupe  she 
was,  and  those  of  the  lady  he  was  about  to  marry  on  a  fixed  day 
after  the  fated  23d  of  October. 

The  Tabernacle,  above  alluded  to,  was  planned  for  the  accom 
modation  of  between  2000  and  3000  persons,  who  were  to  meet, 


CHAP.  V.]  THE  TABERNACLE  AT  BOSTOiN.  77 

pray,  and  "go  up"  at  Boston;  but,  as  it  was  intended  merely 
for  a  temporary  purpose,  the  fabric  Avould  have  been  very  slight 
and  insecure,  had  not  the  magistrates,  fearing  that  it  might  fall 
into  the  street  and  kill  some  of  the  passers-by,  interposed  in 
good  time,  and  required  the  architect  to  erect  a  substantial  edi 
fice.  When  the  society  of  the  Millerites  was  bankrupt,  this 
Tabernacle  was  sold  and  fitted  up  as  a  theater  ;  and  there,  in  the 
course  of  the  winter,  we  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Kean  perform  Macbeth.  Although  under  no  apprehensions  that 
the  roof  would  fall  in,  yet,  as  all  the  seats  were  stuffed  with  hay, 
and  there  was  only  one  door,  we  had  some  conversation  during 
the  performance  as  to  what  might  be  our  chance  of  escape  in  the 
event  of  a  fire.  Only  a  few  months  later  the  whole  edifice  was 
actually  burned  to  the  ground,  but  fortunately  no  lives  were  lost. 
In  one  of  the  scenes  of  Macbeth,  where  Hecate  is  represented  as 
going  up  to  heaven,  and  singing,  "  Now  I'm  furnished  for  the 
flight — Now  I  fly,"  &c.,  some  of  our  party  told  us  they  were 
reminded  of  the  extraordinary  sight  they  had  witnessed  in  that 
room  on  the  23d  of  October  of  the  previous  year,  when  the  walls 
were  all  covered  with  Hebrew  and  Greek  texts,  and  when  a 
crowd  of  devotees  were  praying  in  their  ascension  robes,  in  hourly 
expectation  of  the  consummation  of  all  things. 

I  observed  to  one  of  my  New  England  friends,  that  the  num 
ber  of  Millerite  proselytes,  and  also  the  fact  that  the  prophet  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  Joseph  Smith,  could  reckon  at  the  lowest 
estimate  60,000  followers  in  the  United  States,  and,  according 
to  some  accounts,  120,000,  did  not  argue  much  in  favor  of  the 
working  of  their  plan  of  national  education.  "  As  for  the  Mor 
mons,"  he  replied,  "you  must  bear  in  mind  that  they  were  largely 
recruited  from  the  manufacturing  districts  of  England  and  Wales, 
and  from  European  emigrants  recently  arrived.  They  were  drawn 
chiefly  from  an  illiterate  class  in  the  western  states,  where  so 
ciety  is  in  its  rudest  condition.  The  progress  of  the  Millerites, 
however,  although  confined  to  a  fraction  of  the  population,  re 
flects  undoubtedly  much  discredit  on  the  educational  and  religious 
training  in  New  England;  but  since  the  year  1000,  when  all 
Christendom  believed  that  the  world  was  to  come  to  an  end, 


78  NEW  ENGLAND  FANATICISM.  [CHAP.  V. 

there  have  never  been  wanting  interpreters  of  prophecy,  who 
have  confidently  assigned  some  exact  date,  and  one  near  at  hand, 
for  the  millennium.  Your  Faber  on  the  Prophecies,  and  the 
writings  of  Croly,  and  even  some  articles  in  the  Quarterly  Re 
view,  helped  for  a  time  to  keep  up  this  spirit  here,  and  make  it 
fashionable.  But  the  Millerite  movement,  like  the  recent  exhi 
bition  of  the  Holy  Coat  at  Treves,  has  done  much  to  open  men's 
minds  ;  and  the  exertions  made  of  late  to  check  this  fanatical 
movement,  have  advanced  the  cause  of  truth."  He  then  went 
on  to  describe  to  me  a  sermon  preached  in  one  of  the  northeast 
ern  townships  of  Massachusetts,  which  he  named,  against  the  Mil 
lerite  opinions,  by  the  minister  of  the  parish,  who  explained  the 
doubts  generally  entertained  by  the  learned  in  regard  to  some  of  the 
dates  of  the  prophecies  of  Daniel,  entered  freely  into  modern  con 
troversies  about  the  verbal  inspiration  of  the  Old  and  New  Tes 
tament,  and  referred  to  several  new  works,  both  of  German, 
British,  and  New  England  authors,  which  his  congregation  had 
never  heard  of  till  then.  Not  a  few  of  them  complained  that 
they  had  been  so  long  kept  in  the  dark,  that  their  minister  must 
have  entertained  many  of  these  opinions  long  before,  and  that  he 
had  now  revealed  them  in  order  to  stem  the  current  of  a  popular 
delusion,  and  for  expediency,  rather  than  from  the  love  of  truth. 
"  Never,"  said  they,  "  can  we  in  future  put  the  same  confidence 
in  him  again." 

Other  apologists  observed  to  me,  that  so  long  as  a  part  of  the 
population  was  very  ignorant,  even  the  well-educated  would  occa 
sionally  participate  in  fanatical  movements  ;  "  for  religious  en 
thusiasm,  being  very  contagious,  resembles  a  famine  fever,  which 
first  attacks  those  who  are  starving,  but  afterward  infects  some 
of  the  healthiest  and  best-fed  individuals  in  the  whole  communi 
ty."  This  explanation,  plausible  and  ingenious  as  it  may  ap 
pear,  is,  I  believe,  a  fallacy.  If  they  who  have  gone  through 
school  and  college,  and  have  been  for  years  in  the  habit  of  lis 
tening  to  preachers,  become  the  victims  of  popular  fanaticism,  it 
proves  that,  however  accomplished  and  learned  they  may  be, 
their  reasoning  powers  have  not  been  cultivated,  their  under 
standings  have  not  been  enlarged,  they  have  not  been  trained  in 


CHAP.  V.]  NEW  ENGLAND  FANATICISM.  79 

habits  of  judging  and  thinking  for  themselves  ;  in  fact,  they  arc 
ill  educated.  Instead  of  being  told  that  it  is  their  duty  care 
fully  to  investigate  historical  evidence  for  themselves,  and  to 
cherish  an  independent  frame  of  mind,  they  have  probably  been 
brought  up  to  think  that  a  docile,  submissive,  and  child-like  def 
erence  to  the  authority  of  churchmen  is  the  highest  merit  of  a 
Christian.  They  have  perhaps  heard  much  about  the  pride  of 
philosophy,  and  how  all  human  learning  is  a  snare.  In  mat 
ters  connected  with  religion  they  have  been  accustomed  blinclly 
to  resign  themselves  to  the  guidance  of  others,  and  hence  are 
prepared  to  yield  themselves  up  to  the  influence  of  any  new  pre 
tender  to  superior  sanctity  who  is  a  greater  enthusiast  than 
themselves. 


-_,-, 
(    Library.  ] 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Social  Equality. — Position  of  Servants. — War  with  England. — Coalition  of 
Northern  Democrats,  and  Southern  Slave-owners. — Ostracism  of  Wealth. 
— Legislators  paid. — Envy  in  a  Democracy. — Politics  of  the  Country 
and  the  City. — Pledges  at  Elections. — Universal  Suffrage. — Adventure 
in  a  Stage  Coach. — Return  from  the  White  Mountains. — Plymouth  in 
New  Hampshire.  —  Congregational  and  Methodist  Churches.  —  Theo 
logical  Discussions  of  Fellow-Travelers. — Temperance  Movement. — 
Post-Office  Abuses. — Lowell  Factories. 

Oct.  10,  1845 — DURING  our  stay  in  the  White  Mountains, 
we  were  dining  one  day  at  the  ordinary  of  the  Franconia  hotel, 
when  a  lawyer  from  Massachusetts  pointed  out  to  me  "a  lady" 
sitting  opposite  to  us,  whom  he  recognized  as  the  chambermaid 
of  an  inn  in  the  State  of  Maine,  and  he  supposed  "that  her 
companion  with  whom  she  was  talking  might  belong  to  the  same 
station."  I  asked  if  he  thought  the  waiters,  who  were  as  respect 
ful  to  these  guests  as  to  us,  were  aware  of  their  true  position  in 
society.  "  Probably  they  are  so,"  he  replied  ;  "  and,  moreover, 
as  the  season  is  now  almost  over  in  these  mountains,  I  presume 
that  these  gentlemen,  who  must  have  saved  money  here,  will 
very  soon  indulge  in  some  similar  recreation,  and  make  some  ex 
cursion  themselves."  He  then  entered  into  conversation  with 
the  two  ladies  on  a  variety  of  topics,  for  the  sake  of  drawing 
them  out,  treating  them  quite  as  equals  ;  and  certainly  succeeded 
in  proving  to  me  that  they  had  been  well  taught  at  school,  had 
read  good  books,  and  could  enjoy  a  tour  and  admire  scenery  as 
well  as  ourselves.  "It  is  no  small  gratification  to  them,"  said 
he,  "  to  sit  on  terms  of  equality  with  the  silver  fork  gentry, 
dressed  in  their  best  clothes,  as  if  they  were  in  an  orthodox 
meeting-house."  I  complimented  him  on  carrying  out  in  prac 
tice  the  American  theory  of  sociul  equality.  As  he  had  strong 
anti-slavery  feelings,  and  was  somewhat  of  an  abolitionist,  he 
said,  "  Yes,  but  you  must  not  forget  they  have  no  dash  of  negro 


CHAP.  VI.]  WAR  WITH  ENGLAND.  81 

blood  in  their  veins."  I  remarked,  that  I  had  always  inferred 
from  the  books  of  English  travelers  in  the  United  States,  that 
domestic  service  was  held  as  somewhat  of  a  degradation  in  New 
England.  "  I  remember  the  time,"  he  answered,  "  when  such 
an  idea  was  never  entertained  by  any  one  here  ;  but  servants 
formerly  used  to  live  with  their  master  and  mistress,  and  have 
their  meals  at  the  same  table.  Of  late  years,  the  custom  of 
boarding  separately  has  gained  ground,  and  work  in  factories  is 
now  preferred.  These  are  so  managed,  that  the  daughters  of 
farmers,  and  sometimes  of  our  ministers,  look  upon  them  as  most 
respectable  places,  where  in  three  or  four  years  they  may  earn  a 
small  sum  toward  their  dowry,  or  which  may  help  to  pay  off  a 
mortgage  or  family  debt." 

As,  during  our  stay  here,  the  tone  of  the  newspapers  from 
Washington  was  somewhat  bellicose,  and  we  were  proposing  to 
make  a  tour  of  eight  months  in  the  southern  states,  I  asked  my 
legal  companion  whether  he  was  really  apprehensive  of  a  war 
about  Oregon.  "  No,"  he  said,  "  there  may  be  big  words  and 
much  blustering,  and  perhaps,  before  the  storm  blows  over,  a 
war  panic  ;  but  there  will  be  no  rupture  with  England,  because 
it  is  against  the  interest  of  the  slave-owners  ;  for  you  know,  I 
presume,  that  we  are  governed  by  the  South,  and  our  southern 
chivalrv  will  put  their  veto  on  a  war  of  which  they  would  have 
to  bear  the  brunt."  "If,"  said  I,  "  you  are  ruled  by  the  slave- 
owning  states,  you  may  thank  yourselves  for  it,  the  numerical, 
physical,  intellectual,  and  moral  power  being  on  the  side  of  the 
free  states.  Why  do  you  knock  under  to  them  ?"  "  You  may 
well  ask  that  question,"  he  replied  ;  "  and,  as  a  foreigner,  may 
riot  easily  be  made  to  comprehend  the  political  thralldom  in 
which  we,  the  majority  of  northerners,  are  still  held,  but  which 
can  not,  I  think,  last  much  longer.  Hitherto  the  southern 
planters  have  had  more  leisure  to  devote  to  politics  than  our 
small  farmers  or  merchants  in  the  north.  They  are  banded  to 
gether  as  one  man  in  defense  of  what  they  call  their  property 
and  institutions.  They  have  a  high  bearing,  which,  in  Con 
gress,  often  imposes  on  northern  men  much  superior  to  them  in 
real  talent,  knowledge,  and  strength  of  character.  They  are 

D* 


82  OSTRACISM  OF  WEALTH.  [CHAP.  VI. 

often  eloquent,  and  have  much  political  tact,  and  have  formed  a 
league  with  the  unscrupulous  demagogues  here,  and,  by  uniting 
with  them,  rule  the  country.  For  example,  the  mass  of  our 
population  were  strongly  opposed  to  the  extension  of  slavery,  and 
voted  at  first  against  the  annexation  of  Texas,  yet  they  have 
been  cajoled  into  the  adoption  of  that  measure." 

"  Do  the  slave-owners,"  I  asked,  "  give  bribes  to  the  chiefs  of 
your  democratic  party  ?"  "  No,  our  electors  have  too  much 
self-respect  and  independence  to  accept  of  money  bribes  ;  but,  by 
ioining  with  their  southern  allies,  they  get  what  one  of  their  party 
had  recently  the  effrontery  to  call  '  the  spoils  of  the  victor.' 
They  are  promoted  to  places  in  the  custom-house  or  post-office, 
or  sent  on  a  foreign  mission,  or  made  district  attorneys,  or  a 
lawyer  may  now  and  then  be  raised  even  to  the  bench  of  the 
Supreme  Court ;  not  one  who  is  positively  incompetent,  but  a 
man  who,  but  for  political  services,  would  never  have  been  se 
lected  for  the  highest  honors  in  his  profession." 

I  next  told  my  friend  that,  when  traveling  in  Maine,  I  had 
asked  a  gentleman  why  his  neighbor,  Mr.  A.,  a  rich  and  well- 
informed  man,  was  not  a  member  of  their  Legislature,  and  he 
had  replied,  "  Because  he  is  known  to  have  so  much  wealth, 
both  in  land  and  money,  that,  if  he  were  to  stand,  the  people 
would  not  elect  him."  "  Is  it  then,"  I  inquired,  "an  avowed 
principle  of  the  democracy,  that  the  rich  are  to  be  ostracised  ?" 
and  I  went  on  to  say  that,  in  a  club  to  which  I  belonged  in 
London,  we  had  a  servant  who,  though  very  poor,  had  a  vote 
as  proprietor  of  a  house,  all  the  apartments  of  which  he  let  out 
to  different  lodgers.  When  he  was  questioned  why,  at  two  suc 
cessive  elections,  he  had  voted  for  candidates  of  exactly  opposite 
opinions  in  politics,  he  explained  by  saying,  "  I  make  it  a  rule 
always  to  vote  with  my  first  floor."  "  I  presume  that  if  he 
migrated  to  New  Hampshire  or  Maine,  he  would  vote  with  his 
garret,  instead  of  his  first  floor  ?" 

"  I  have  no  doubt,"  said  my  companion,  "  that  such  an  elector 
would  side  with  the  powers  that  be  ;  and  as  the  democracy  has 
the  upper  hand  here,  as  in  Maine,  he  would  have  paid  as  servile 
a  homage  to  the  dominant  party  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  as 


CHAP.  VI.]  LEGISLATORS  PAID.  33 

he  did  to  the  aristocracy  of  wealth  in  your  country.  Do  you 
desire  to  see  our  people  regard  wealth  as  a  leading  qualification 
for  their  representatives  ?" 

"  Surely,"  said  I,  "  it  is  au  evil  that  men  of  good  abilities,  of 
leisure,  and  independent  station,  who  have  had  the  best  means 
of  obtaining  a  superior  education,  should  be  excluded  from  public 
life  by  that  envy  which  seems  to  have  so  rank  a  growth  in  a 
democracy,  owing  to  the  vain  efforts  to  realize  a  theory  of  equal 
ity.  It  must  be  a  defect  in  your  system,  if  there  is  no  useful 
career  open  to  young  men  of  fortune.  They  are  often  ruined,  I 
hear,  for  want  of  suitable  employments." 

"  There  are,"  he  said,  "  comparatively  few  of  them  in  the 
United  States,  where  the  law  of  primogeniture  no  longer  pre 
vails  ;  and  if  we  have  good-for-nothing  individuals  among  them, 
it  is  no  more  than  may  be  said  of  your  own  aristocracy."  lie 
then  named  an  example  or  two  of  New  Englanders,  who,  having 
inherited  considerable  property,  had  yet  risen  to  political  distinc 
tion,  and  several  more  (four  of  whom  I  myself  knew),  who, 
having  made  large  fortunes  by  their  talents,  had  been  members 
either  of  the  State  Legislature  of  Massachusetts  or  of  Congress. 
He  did  not,  however,  deny  that  it  is  often  good  policy,  in  an 
election,  for  a  rich  candidate  to  affect  to  be  poorer  than  he  is. 
"  Every  one  of  our  representatives,"  he  added,  "  whether  in  the 
State  Legislatures  or  in  Congress,  receives  a  certain  sum  daily 
when  on  duty,  besides  more  than  enough  traveling  money  for 
carrying  him  to  his  post  and  home  again.  In  choosing  a  dele 
gate,  therefore,  the  people  consider  themselves  as  patrons  who 
are  giving  away  a  place  ;  and  if  an  opulent  man  offers  himself, 
they  are  disposed  to  say,  *  You  have  enough  already,  let  us  help 
some  one  as  good  as  you  who  needs  it.'  " 

During  my  subsequent  stay  in  New  England,  I  often  con 
versed  with  men  of  the  working  classes  on  the  same  subject,  and 
invariably  found  that  they  had  made  up  their  mind  that  it  was 
not  desirable  to  choose  representatives  from  the  wealthiest  class. 
"  The  rich,"  they  say,  "  have  less  sympathy  with  our  opinions 
and  feelings  ;  love  their  amusements,  and  go  shooting,  fishing, 
and  traveling  ;  keep  hospitable  houses,  and  are  inaccessible  when 


84  GENERAL  JACKSON'S  POLICY.  [CHAP.  VI. 

we  want  to  talk  with  them,  at  all  hcmrs,  and  tell  them  how  ice 
wish  them  to  vote"  I  once  asked  a  party  of  New  England 
tradesmen  whether,  if  Mr.  B.,  already  an  eminent  public  man, 
came  into  a  large  fortune  through  his  wife,  as  might  soon  be  ex 
pected,  he  would  stand  a  worse  chance  than  before  of  being  sent 
to  Congress.  The  question  gave  rise  to  a  discussion  among 
themselves,  and  at  last  they  assured  me  that  they  did  not  think 
his  accession  to  a  fortune  would  do  him  any  harm.  It  clearly 
never  struck  them  as  possible  that  it  could  do  him  any  good,  or 
aid  his  chance  of  success. 

The  chief  motive,  I  apprehend,  of  preferring  a  poorer  candi 
date,  is  the  desire  of  reducing  the  members  of  their  Legislature 
to  mere  delegates.  A  rich  man  would  be  apt  to  have  an  opinion 
of  his  own,  to  be  unwilling  to  make  a  sacrifice  of  his  free  agency ; 
he  would  not  always  identify  himself  with  the  majority  of  his 
electors,  condescend  to  become,  like  the  wires  of  the  electric 
telegraph,  a  mere  piece  of  machinery  for  conveying  to  the  Capitol 
of  his  State,  or  to  Washington,  the  behests  of  the  multitude. 
That  there  is,  besides,  a  vulgar  jealousy  of  superior  wealth, 
especially  in  the  less  educated  districts  and  newer  states,  I  satis 
fied  myself  in  the  course  of  my  tour  ;  but  in  regard  to  envy,  we 
must  also  bear  in  mind,  on  the  other  hand,  that  they  who  elevate 
to  distinction  one  of  their  own  class  in  society,  have  sometimes 
to  achieve  a  greater  victory  over  that  passion  than  when  they 
confer  the  same  favor  on  one  who  occupies  already,  by  virtue  of 
great  riches,  a  higher  position. 

In  reference  also  to  pledges  exacted  from  representatives  at  an 
election,  I  am  bound  to  mention  some  spirited  letters  which  I  saw 
published  by  Whig  candidates  in  Massachusetts,  who  carried  their 
election  in  spite  of  them.  From  one  of  these  I  quote  the  follow 
ing  words  ;  "I  must  decline  giving  a  direct  reply  to  your  specific 
questions  ;  my  general  conduct  and  character  as  a  public  man, 
must  be  your  guarantee.  My  votes  are  on  record,  my  speeches 
are  in  print ;  if  they  do  not  inspire  confidence,  no  pledges  or  dec 
larations  of  purpose  ought  to  do  so." 

It  was  part  of  General  Jackson's  policy,  openly  avowed  by  him 
in  several  of  his  presidential  addresses,  to  persuade  the  small 


CHAP.  VI.]  UNIVERSAL  SUFFRAGE.  85 

farmers,  mechanics,  and  laborers  that  they  constituted  the  people, 
were  the  bone  and  sinew  of  the  country,  the  real  possessors  of  the 
national  wealth,  although  in  their  hands  it  is  subdivided  into 
small  shares  ;  and  he  told  them  it  was  their  business  to  make  a 
constant  effort  to  maintain  their  rights  against  the  rich  capitalists 
and  moneyed  corporations,  who,  by  facilities  of  combining  together, 
could  usually  make  their  own  class  interests  prevail  against  a 
more  numerous  body,  and  one  possessed  in  the  aggregate  of  greater 
wealth. 

It  seems  that  they  were  not  slow  in  taking  this  advice,  for 
many  merchants  complained  to  me  that  the  small  farmers  had 
too  great  an  ascendency.  No  feature,  indeed,  appeared  to  me 
more  contrasted  in  the  political  aspect  of  America  and  Great 
Britain  than  this,  that  in  the  United  States  the  democracy  derives 
its  chief  support  from  the  landed  interest,  while  the  towns  take 
the  more  conservative  side,  and  are  often  accused  by  the  landed 
proprietors  of  being  too  aristocratic.  Every  where  the  ambition 
of  accumulating  riches  without  limit  is  so  manifest,  as  to  incline 
me  to  adopt  the  opinion  expressed  to  me  by  several  rich  Boston 
friends,  that  wealth  has  in  this  country  quite  as  many  charms, 
and  confers  as  much  distinction  and  influence,  as  it  ought  to  do. 
If  a  rich  Englishman  came  to  settle  here,  he  would  be  disappointed 
on  finding  that  money  gave  him  no  facilities  in  taking  a  lead  in 
politics  ;  but  the  affluent  natives  do  not  pine  for  influence  which 
they  never  possessed  or  expected  to  derive  from  their  riches. 

The  great  evil  of  universal  suffrage  is  the  irresistible  temptation 
it  affords  to  a  needy  set  of  adventurers  to  make  politics  a  trade, 
and  to  devote  all  their  time  to  agitation,  electioneering,  and  flat 
tering  the  passions  of  the  multitude.  The  natural  aristocracy 
of  a  republic  consists  of  the  most  eminent  men  in  the  liberal 
professions — lawyers,  divines,  and  physicians  of  note,  merchants 
in  extensive  business,  literary  and  scientific  men  of  celebrity ;  and 
men  of  all  these  classes  are  apt  to  set  too  high  a  value  on  their 
time,  to  be  willing  to  engage  in  the  strife  of  elections  perpetually 
going  on,  and  in  which  they  expose  themselves  to  much  calumny 
and  accusations,  which,  however  unfounded,  are  professionally 
injurious  to  them.  The  richer  citizens,  who  might  be  more  in- 


86  ADVENTURE  IN  A  STAGE-COACH.  [CHAP.  VI. 

dependent  of  such  attacks,  love  their  ease  or  their  books,  and  from 
indolence  often  abandon  the  field  to  the  more  ignorant ;  but  I 
met  with  many  optimists  who  declared  that  whenever  the  country 
is  threatened  with  any  great  danger  or  disgrace,  there  is  a  right- 
rninded  majority  whose  energies  can  be  roused  effectively  into 
action.  Nevertheless,  the  sacrifices  required  on  such  occasions 
to  work  upon  the  popular  mind  are  so  great,  that  the  field  is  in 
danger  of  being  left  open,  on  all  ordinary  occasions,  to  the  dema 
gogue. 

When  I  urged  these  and  other  objections  against  the  working 
of  their  republican  institutions,  I  was  sometimes  told  that  every 
political  system  has  its  inherent  vices  and  defects,  that  the  evil 
will  soon  be  mitigated  by  the  removal  of  ignorance  and  the  im 
proved  education  of  the  many.  Sometimes,  instead  of  an  argu 
ment,  they  would  ask  me  whether  any  of  the  British  colonies  are 
more  prosperous  in  commerce,  manufactures,  or  agriculture,  or  are 
doing  as  much  to  promote  good  schools,  as  some  even  of  their  most 
democratic  states,  such  as  New  Hampshire  and  Maine?  "Let 
our  institutions,"  they  said,  "be  judged  of  by  their  fruits."  To 
such  an  appeal,  an  Englishman  as  much  struck  as  I  had  been 
with  the  recent  progress  of  things  in  those  very  districts,  and 
with  the  general  happiness,  activity,  and  contentment  of  all 
classes,  could  only  respond  by  echoing  the  sentiment  of  the  Chan 
cellor  Oxenstiern,  "  Quam  parva  sapientia  mundus  gubernatur." 
How  great  must  be  the  amount  of  misgovernment  in  the  world 
in  general,  if  a  democracy  like  this  can  deserve  to  rank  so  high 
in  the  comparative  scale  ! 

Oct.  10.  —  In  the  stage  coach,  between  Franconia  and  Ply 
mouth,  in  New  Hampshire,  we  were  at  first  the  only  inside 
passengers  ;  but  about  half  way  we  met  on  the  road  two  men 
and  two  women,  respectably  dressed,  who  might,  we  thought,  have 
come  from  some  of  the  sea-ports.  They  made  a  bargain  with  the 
driver  to  give  them  inside  seats  at  a  cheap  rate.  As  we  were 
annoyed  by  the  freedom  of  their  manners  and  conversation,  I  told 
the  coachman,  when  we  stopped  to  change  horses,  that  we  had 
a  right  to  protection  against  the  admission  of  company  at  half 
price,  and,  if  they  went  on  further,  I  must  go  on  the  outside  with 


CHAP.  VI.]     RETURN  FROM  THE  WHITE  MOUNTAINS.  87 

my  wife.  He  immediately  apologized,  and  went  up  to  the  two 
young  men  and  gave  them  their  choice  to  take  their  seats  behind 
him  or  be  left  on  the  road.  To  my  surprise,  they  quietly  accepted 
the  former  alternative.  The  ladies,  for  the  first  half  mile,  were 
mute,  then  burst  out  into  a  fit  of  laughter,  amused  at  the  ludicrous 
position  of  their  companions  on  the  outside,  who  were  sitting  in  a 
pelting  rain.  They  afterward  behaved  with  decorum,  and  I 
mention  the  incident  because  it  was  the  only  unpleasant  adven 
ture  of  the  kind  which  we  experienced  in  the  course  of  all  our 
travels  in  the  United  States.  In  general,  there  is  no  country 
where  a  woman  could,  with  so  much  comfort  and  security,  under 
take  a  long  journey  alone. 

As  we  receded  from  the  mountains,  following  the  banks  of  the 
river  Pemigewasset,  the  narrow  valley  widened  gradually,  till, 
first,  a  small,  grassy,  alluvial  flat,  and,  at  length,  some  cultivated 
fields,  intervened  between  the  stream  and  the  boundary  rocks  of 
mica  schist  and  granite.  Occasionally  the  low  river-plain  was 
separated  from  the  granite  by  a  terrace  of  sand  and  gravel. 
Usually  many  boulders,  with  a  few  large  detached  blocks,  some 
of  them  nine  feet  in  diameter,  were  strewed  over  the  granite 
rocks.  These,  as  generally  throughout  New  England,  break 
out  here  and  there,  from  beneath  their  covering  of  drift,  in  smooth 
bosses,  or  rounded,  dome-shaped  forms,  called  in  the  Alps  "  roches 
moutonnees."  The  contrast  is  very  picturesque  between  the 
level  and  fertile  plain  and  the  region  of  lichen-covered  rock,  or 
sterile,  quartzose  sand,  partially  clothed  with  the  native  forest, 
now  in  its  autumnal  beauty,  and  lighted  up  by  a  bright  sun. 
On  the  flat  ground  bordering  the  river,  we  passed  many  wagons 
laden  with  yellow  heads  of  Indian  corn,  over  which  were  piled 
many  a  huge  pumpkin  of  a  splendid  reddish  orange  color.  These 
vehicles  were  drawn  by  oxen,  with  long  horns  spreading  out 
horizontally. 

We  stopped  for  the  night  in  an  inland  village  on  which  the 
maritime  name  of  Plymouth  has  been  bestowed.  Here  we  spent 
a  Sunday.  There  were  two  meeting-houses  in  the  place,  one 
Congregational  and  the  other  Methodist,  which  shared  between 
them,  in  nearly  equal  proportions,  the  whole  population  of  the 


88  PLYMOUTH,  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [CHAP.  VI 

township.  We  went  with  our  landlord  first  to  one,  and  then, 
in  the  afternoon,  to  the  other.  Each  service  lasted  about  seventy 
minutes,  and  they  were  so  arranged  that  the  first  began  at  hall- 
past  ten,  and  the  second  ended  at  two  o'clock,  for  the  convenience 
of  the  country  people,  who  came  in  vehicles  of  all  kinds,  many 
of  them  from  great  distances.  The  reading,  singing,  and  preach 
ing  would  certainly  not  suffer  by  comparison  with  the  average 
service  in  rural  districts  in  churches  of  the  Establishment  in 
England.  The  discourse  of  the  Methodist,  delivered  fluently 
without  notes,  and  with  much  earnestness,  kept  his  hearers 
awake  ;  and  once,  when  my  own  thoughts  were  wandering, 
they  were  suddenly  recalled  to  the  pulpit  by  the  startling  ques 
tion — whether,  if  some  intimate  friend,  whom  we  had  lost, 
should  return  to  us  from  the  world  of  spirits,  his  message  would 
produce  more  effect  on  our  minds  than  did  the  raising  of  Lazarus 
on  the  Jews  of  old  ?  He  boldly  affirmed  that  it  would  not.  I 
began  to  think  how  small  would  be  the  sensation  created  by  a 
miracle  performed  in  the  present  day  in  Syria  and  many  Eastern 
countries,  especially  in  Persia,  where  they  believe  in  the  power 
of  their  own  holy  men  occasionally  to  raise  persons  from  the  dead, 
in  comparison  to  its  effect  in  New  England  ;  and  how  readily  he 
Jews  of  old  believed  in  departures  from  the  ordinary  course  of 
nature,  by  the  intervention  of  evil  spirits  or  the  power  of  magic. 
But  I  presume  the  preacher  merely  meant  to  say,  and  no  doubt 
his  doctrine  was  true,  that  a  voice  or  sign  from  Heaven  would 
no  more  deter  men  from  sinning,  than  do  the  clear  dictates  of 
their  consciences,  in  spite  of  which  they  yield  to  temptation. 

In  the  evening  I  walked  on  a  roofed  wooden  bridge,  resem 
bling  many  in  Switzerland,  which  here  spans  the  Pemigewasset, 
and  the  keeper  of  it  told  me  how  the  whole  river  is  frozen  over 
in  winter,  but  the  ice  being  broken  by  the  falls  above,  does  not 
carry  away  the  bridge.  He  also  related  how  his  grandfather, 
who  had  lived  to  be  an  old  man,  had  gone  up  the  river  with  an 
exploring  party  among  the  Indians,  and  how  there  was  a  bloody 
battle  at  the  forks  above,  where  the  Indians  were  defeated,  after 
great  slaughter  on  both  sides. 

On  entering  the  stage  coach  the  next  morning,  on  our  way 


CHAP.  VI.]  THEOLOGICAL  DISCUSSION.  89 

south,  we  had  two  inside  fellow-travelers  with  us.  One  of 
them  was  a  blacksmith  of  Boston,  and  the  other  a  glover  of 
Plymouth.  After  conversing  on  the  price  of  agricultural  imple 
ments,  they  fell  into  a  keen  controversy  on  several  biblical  ques 
tions.  After  mentioning  instances  of  great  longevity  in  New 
Hampshire,  the  glover  raised  the  question,  whether  the  antedi 
luvian  patriarchs  really  lived  seven  or  eight  centuries,  or  wheth 
er,  as  he  supposed,  we  were  to  take  these  passages  in  a  "  myth 
ical  sense."  "  For  his  part,  he  thought  we  might,  perhaps,  in 
terpret  them  to  mean  that  the  family  stock,  or  dynasty,  of  a  par 
ticular  patriarch,  endured  for  those  long  periods."  He  also  went 
on  to  say,  that  the  Deluge  did  not  cover  the  highest  mountains 
literally,  but  only  figuratively.  Against  these  latitudinarian  no 
tions  the  blacksmith  strongly  protested,  declaring  his  faith  in  the 
literal  and  exact  interpretation  of  the  sacred  record  ;  but  at  the 
same  time  treating  his  antagonist  as  one  who  had  a  right  to  in 
dulge  his  own  opinions.  As  soon  as  there  was  a  pause  in  the 
conversation,  I  asked  them  if  they  approved  of  a  frequent  change 
of  ministers,  such  as  I  found  to  prevail  in  New  England — the 
Methodists  remaining  only  two  years,  and  the  Congregationalists 
only  four  or  six  at  the  utmost,  in  one  parish.  They  seemed 
much  surprised  to  learn  from  me,  that  in  England  we  thought  a 
permanent  relation  between  the  pastor  and  his  flock  to  be  nat 
ural  and  desirable.  Our  people,  they  observed,  are  fond  of  va 
riety,  and  there  would  always  be  danger,  when  they  grew  tired 
of  a  preacher,  of  their  running  after  others  of  a  different  sect. 
"  Besides,"  said  the  blacksmith,  "  how  are  they  to  keep  up  with 
the  reading  of  the  day,  and  improve  their  minds,  if  they  remain 
forever  in  one  town  ?  They  have  first  their  parish  duties,  then 
they  are  expected  to  write  two  new  sermons  every  week,  usually 
referring  to  some  matters  of  interest  of  the  day  ;  but  if  they  have 
a  call  to  a  new  parish,  they  not  only  gain  new  ideas,  but  much 
leisure,  for  they  may  then  preach  over  again  their  old  sermons." 
He  then  told  me  that  he  had  not  visited  New  Hampshire  for 
ten  years,  and  was  much  struck  with  the  reform  which,  in  that 
interval,  the  temperance  movement  had  worked  in  the  hotels  and 
habits  of  the  people.  Mr.  Mason,  an  eminent  lawyer  of  Boston, 


90  POST-OFFICE  ABUSES.  [CHAP.  VI 

since  dead,  with  whom  I  afterward  spoke  on  the  same  subject, 
informed  me  that  much  stronger  measures  had  been  taken  in 
Massachusetts,  where  the  Legislature  first  passed  a  law,  that  no 
rum  or  ardent  spirits  should  be  sold  without  a  license,  and  then 
the  magistrates  in  many  townships  resolved  that  within  their 
limits  no  licenses  should  be  granted.  "  A  most  arbitrary  pro 
ceeding,"  he  said,  "  and  perhaps  unconstitutional  ;  for  the  Fed 
eral  Government  levies  a  duty  on  the  importation  of  spirits,  arid 
this  is  a  blow  struck  at  their  revenue.  But  you  can  have  no 
idea,"  he  added,  "  how  excess  in  drinking  ruins  the  health  in  this 
climate.  I  have  just  been  reading  the  life  of  Lord  Eldon,  and 
find  that  he  was  able,  when  in  full  work,  to  take  with  impunity 
a  bottle  of  port  a  day,  which  would  kill  any  sedentary  New 
Englander  in  three  years." 

We  left  the  stage  when  we  reached  the  present  terminus  of 
the  Boston  railway  at  Concord,  and,  anxious  for  letters  from 
England,  went  immediately  to  the  post-office,  where  they  told  us 
that  the  post-bag  had  been  sent  by  mistake  to  Concord  in  Mas 
sachusetts,  the  letters  of  that  township  having  been  forwarded  to 
this  place.  Such  blunders  are  attributable  to  two  causes,  for 
both  of  which  the  practical  good  sense  of  the  American  people 
will,  it  is  hoped,  soon  find  a  cure.  Synonymous  appellations 
might  be  modified  by  additions  of  north  and  south,  east  and  west, 
&c.  ;  and  the  General  Post-office  might  publish  a  directory,  and 
prohibit  the  future  multiplication  of  the  same  names  in  a  coun 
try  where  not  only  new  towns,  but  new  states  are  every  day  start 
ing  into  existence.  The  other  evil  is  a  political  one  ;  the  prac 
tice  first,  I  am  told,  carried  out  unscrupulously  during  the  pres 
identship  of  General  Jackson,  of  regarding  all  placemen,  down  to 
subordinate  officials,  such  as  the  village  post-master,  as  a  body 
of  electioneering  agents,  who  must  support  the  Federal  Govern 
ment.  They  who  happen,  therefore,  to  be  of  opposite  opinions, 
must  turn  out  as  often  as  there  is  a  change  of  ministry.  On 
more  than  one  occasion  I  have  known  the  stage  make  a  circuit 
of  several  miles  in  Massachusetts,  to  convey  the  mail  to  the 
postmaster's  residence,  because,  forsooth,  in  the  said  village,  all 
the  houses  which  lay  in  the  direct  road  belonging  to  trustworthy 


CHAP.  VI.]  LOWELL  FACTORIES.  91 

men,  were  those  of  Whigs.  In  short,  the  mail,  like  the  cabinet 
at  Washington,  had  to  go  out  of  its  way  to  hunt  up  a  respectable 
democrat,  and  he,  when  found,  has  to  learn,  a  new  craft.  By 
leaving  such  places  to  the  patronage  of  each  state,  this  class  of 
abuses  would  be  much  lessened. 

Oct.  14. — Next  morning  we  received  all  our  letters  from 
England,  only  a  fortnight  old,  and  had  time  to  travel  seventy- 
five  miles  by  railway  to  Boston  before  dark.  When  I  took  out 
the  tickets  they  told  me  we  had  no  time  to  lose,  saying,  "Be  as 
spry  as  you  can,"  meaning  "  quick,"  "  active."  From  the  cars 
we  saw  the  Merrimack  at  the  rapids,  foaming  over  the  granite 
rocks  ;  and,  when  I  reflected  on  the  extent  of  barren  country 
all  round  us,  and  saw  many  spaces  covered  with  loose,  moving 
sands,  like  the  dunes  on  the  coast,  I  could  not  help  admiring  the 
enterprise  and  industry  which  has  created  so  much  wealth  in 
this  wilderness.  We  were  told  of  the  sudden  increase  of  the 
new  town  of  Manchester,  and  passed  Lowell,  only  twenty-five 
years  old,  with  its  population  of  2 0,000  inhabitants,  and  its 
twenty-four  churches  and  religious  societies.  Some  of  the  man 
ufacturing  companies  here  have  given  notice  that  they  will  em 
ploy  no  one  who  does  not  attend  divine  worship,  and  whose  char 
acter  is  not  strictly  moral.  Most  of  the  9000  factory  girls  of 
this  place,  concerning  whom  so  much  has  been  written,  ought 
not  to  be  compared  to  those  of  England,  as  they  only  remain  five 
or  six  years  in  this  occupation,  and  are  taken  in  general  from  a 
higher  class  in  society.  Bishop  Potter,  in  his  work  entitled 
"  The  School,"  tells  us  (p.  119)  "  that  in  the  Boott  factory  there 
were  about  950  young  women  employed  for  five  and  a  half  years, 
and  that  only  one  case  was  known  of  an  illegitimate  birth,  and 
then  the  mother  was  an  Irish  emigrant." 

I  was  informed  by  a  fellow-traveler  that  the  joint-stock  com 
panies  of  Lowell  have  a  capital  of  more  than  two  millions  ster 
ling  invested.  "Such  corporations,"  he  said,  "are  too  aristo 
cratic  for  our  ideas,  and  can  combine  to  keep  down  the  price  of 
wages."  But  one  of  the  managers,  in  reply,  assured  me  that 
the  competition  of  rival  factories  is  great,  and  the  work-people 
pass  freely  from  one  company  to  another,  being  only  required  to 


92  LOWELL  FACTORIES.  [CHAP.  VI. 

sign  an  agreement  to  give  a  fortnight's  notice  to  quit.  He  also 
maintained  that,  on  the  contrary,  they  are  truly  democratic  insti 
tutions,  the  shares  being  as  low  as  500  dollars,  and  often  held 
by  the  operatives,  as  some  of  them  were  by  his  own  domestic 
servants.  By  this  system  the  work-people  are  prevented  from 
looking  on  the  master  manufacturers  as  belonging  to  a  distinct 
class,  having  different  interests  from  their  own.  The  holders  of 
small  shares  have  all  the  advantages  of  partners,  but  are  not 
answerable  for  the  debts  of  the  establishment  beyond  their  de 
posits.  They  can  examine  all  the  accounts  annually,  when  there 
is  a  public  statement  of  their  affairs. 

An  English  overseer  told  me  that  he  and  other  foremen  were 
receiving  here,  and  in  other  New  England  mills,  two  dollars  and 
two  and  a  half  dollars  a  day  (8s.  6d.  and  10s.  6d.), 


CHAPTER  VII. 

Plymouth,  Massachusetts. — Plymouth  Beach. — Marine  Shells. — Quicksand. 
— Names  of  Pilgrim  Fathers. — Forefathers'  Day. — Pilgrim  Relics. — 
Their  Authenticity  considered. — Decoy  Pond. — A  Barn  Traveling. — 
Excursion  to  Salem. — Museum. — Warrants  for  Execution  of  Witches. — 
Causes  of  the  Persecution. — Conversation  with  Colored  Abolitionists. — 
Comparative  Capacity  of  White  and  Negro  Races. — Half  Breeds  and 
Hybrid  Intellects. 

Oct.  15,  1845. — AFTER  spending  a  day  in  Boston,  we  set 
out  by  stage  for  Plymouth,  Massachusetts,  thirty-eight  miles  in 
a  southwest  direction,  for  I  wished  to  see  the  spot  where  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers  landed,  and  where  the  first  colony  was  founded 
in  New  England.  In  the  suburbs  of  Boston  we  went  through 
gome  fine  streets  called  the  South  Cove,  the  houses  built  on  piles, 
where  I  had  seen  a  marsh  only  three  years  ago.  It  Avas  a  bright 
day.  and,  as  we  skirted  the  noble  bay,  tho  deep  blue  sea  was  seen 
enlivened  with  the  white  sails  of  vessels  laden  with  granite  from 
the  quarries  of  Quincy,  a  village  through  which  we  soon  after 
ward  passed. 

When  we  had  journeyed  eighteen  miles  into  the  country  I 
was  told  we  were  in  Adams-street,  and  afterward,  when  in  a 
winding  lane  with  trees  on  each  side,  and  without  a  house  in 
sight,  that  we  were  in  Washington-street.  But  nothing  could 
surprise  me  again  after  having  been  told  one  day  in  New  Hamp 
shire,  when  seated  on  a  rock  in  the  midst  of  the  wild  woods,  far 
from  any  dwelling,  that  I  was  in  the  exact  center  of  the  town. 

;'  God  made  the  country,  and  man  mado  the  town," 
sang  the  poet  Cowper  :   and  I  can  well  imagine  how  the  village 
pupils  must  be  puzzled  until  the  meaning  of  this  verse  has  been 
expounded  to  them  by  the  schoolmaster. 

On  the  whole,  the  scenery  of  the  low  granitic-  region  bordering 
the  Atlantic  in  New  England  preserves  a  uniform  character  over 
a  wide  space,  and  is  without  striking  features ;  yet  occasionally 
the  landscape  is  most  agreeable.  At  one  time  we  skirted  a 


94  PLYMOUTH  BEACH.  [CHAP.  VII. 

swamp  bordered  by  red  cedars  ;  at  another  a  small  lake,  then 
hills  of  barren  sand,  then  a  wood  where  the  sumach  and  oak, 
with  red  and  yellow  fading  leaves,  were  mixed  with  pines  ;  then 
suddenly  a  bare  rock  of  granite  or  gneiss  rises  up,  with  one  side 
quite  perpendicular,  fifteen  or  twenty-five  feet  high,  and  covered 
on  its  summit  with  birch,  fir,  and  oak. 

We  admired  the  fine  avenues  of  drooping  elms  in  the  streets 
of  Plymouth  as  we  entered,  and  went  to  a  small  old-fashioned 
inn  called  the  Pilgrim  House,  where  I  hired  a  carriage,  in  which 
the  landlord  drove  us  at  once  to  see  the  bay  and  visit  Plymouth 
beach.  This  singular  bar  of  sand,  three  miles  long,  runs  across 
part  of  the  bay  directly  opposite  the  town,  and,  two  miles  distant 
from  it,  serving  as  a  breakwater  to  the  port ;  in  spite  of  which  the 
sea  has  been  making  great  inroads,  and  might  have  swept  away  all 
the  wharves  but  for  this  protection.  As  the  bar  was  fast  wasting 
away,  the  Federal  Government  employed  engineers  to  erect  a  wood 
en  framework,  secured  with  piles,  a  mile  long,  which  has  been  filled 
with  stones,  and  which  has  caused  an  accu'mulation  of  sand  to  take 
place.  This  beach  reminded  me  of  the  bar  of  Hurst  Castle,  in  Hamp 
shire  ;  and  in  both  cases  a  stream  enters  the  bay  where  the  beach 
joins  the  land.  It  is  well  known  that  the  Plymouth  bar  was  a 
narrow  neck  of  land  eighty  years  ago  ;  and  one  of  the  inhabitants 
told  me  that  when  a  boy  he  had  gathered  nuts,  wild  grapes,  and 
plums  there.  Even  fifty  years  ago  some  stumps  of  trees  were 
still  remaining,  whereas  nothing  now  can  be  seen  but  a  swamp, 
a  sea-beach,  and  some  shoals  adjoining  them.  Here  I  spent  an 
hour  with  my  wife  collecting  shells,  and  we  found  eighteen  species, 
twelve  peculiar  to  America,  and  six  common  to  Europe ;  namely, 
Buccinum  undatum,  Purpura  lapillus,  Mya  arenaria,  Cyp- 
rina  islandica,  Modiola  papuana,  and  Mytilus  edulis,  all  spe 
cies  which  have  a  high  northern  range,  and  which,  the  geologist 
will  remark,  are  found  fossil  in  the  drift  or  glacial  deposits  both 
of  North  America  and  Europe,  and  have  doubtless  continued  to 
inhabit  both  hemispheres  from  that  era.  South  of  Cape  Cod  the 
mollusca  are  so  different  from  the  assemblage  inhabiting  the  sea 
north  of  that  cape,  that  we  may  consider  it  as  the  limit  of  two 
provinces  of  marine  testacea. 


CHAP.  VIL]  MARINE  SHELLS.— QUICKSAND.  95 

The  most  conspicuous  shell  scattered  over  the  smooth  sands 
was  the  large  and  ponderous  Mactra  solidissima,  some  specimens 
of  which  were  six  inches  and  a  half  in  their  greatest  length,  and 
much  larger  and  heavier  than  any  British  bivalve.  The  broad 
and  deep  muscular  impression  in  the  interior  of  each  valve  is 
indicative  of  a  great  power  of  clasping  ;  and  I  was  assured  by  a 
good  zoologist  of  Boston  that  this  mollusk  has  been  known  to 
close  upon  the  coot,  or  velvet  duck  (Fuligula  fusca),  and  the 
blue-winged  teal  (Anas  discorsj,  when  they  have  been  feeding 
on  them,  holding  these  feathered  enemies  so  fast  by  the  beak  or 
claw,  that  the  tide  has  come  up  and  drowned  them. 

After  we  had  been  some  time  engaged  in  collecting  shells,  we 
turned  round  and  saw  the  horses  of  our  vehicle  sinking  in  a 
quicksand,  plunging  violently,  and  evidently  in  the  greatest  terror. 
For  a  few  minutes  our  landlord,  the  driver,  expected  that  they 
and  the  carriage  and  himself  would  have  been  swallowed  up  ; 
but  he  succeeded  at  last  in  quieting  them,  and  after  they  had 
rested  for  some  time,  though  still  trembling,  they  had  strength 
enough  to  turn  round,  and  by  many  plunges  to  get  back  again  to 
a  firm  part  of  the  beach. 

The  wind  was  bitterly  cold,  and  we  learned  that  on  the  even 
ing  before  the  sea  had  been  frozen  over  near  the  shore  ;  yet  it 
was  two  months  later  when,  on  the  22d  of  December,  1620, 
now  called  Forefathers'  Day,  the  Pilgrims,  consisting  of  101 
souls,  landed  here  from  the  Mayflower.  No  wonder  that  half 
of  them  perished  from  the  severity  of  the  first  winter.  They 
who  escaped  seem,  as  if  in  compensation,  to  have  been  rewarded 
with  unusual  longevity.  We  saw  in  the  grave-yard  the  tombs 
of  not  a  few  whose  ages  ranged  from  seventy-nine  to  ninety-nine 
years.  The  names  inscribed  on  their  monuments  are  very  char 
acteristic  of  Puritan  times,  with  a  somewhat  grotesque  mixture 
of  other  very  familiar  ones,  as  Jerusha,  Sally,  Adoniram,  Consider, 
Seth,  Experience,  Dorcas,  Polly,  Eunice,  Eliphalet,  Mercy,  &c. 
The  New  Englanders  laugh  at  the  people  of  the  "  Old  Colony" 
for  remaining  in  a  primitive  state,  and  are  hoping  that  the  rail 
road  from  Boston,  now  nearly  complete,  may  soon  teach  them  to 
go  a-head,  But  they  who  visit  the  town  for  the  sake  of  old 


06  PILGRIM  FATHERS.— RELICS.  [CHAP.  VII. 

associations,  will  not  complain  of  the  antique  style  of  many  of 
the  buildings,  and  the  low  rooms  with  paneled  walls,  and  huge 
wooden  beams  projecting  from  the  ceilings,  such  as  I  never  saw 
elsewhere  in  America.  Some  houses  built  of  brick  brought  from 
Holland,  notwithstanding  the  abundance  of  brick-earth  in  the 
neighborhood,  were  pointed  out  to  us  in  Leyden-street,  so  called 
from  the  last  town  in  Europe  where  the  pilgrims  sojourned  after 
they  had  been  driven  out  of  their  native  country  by  religious 
persecution.  In  some  private  houses  we  were  interested  in 
many  venerated  heir-looms,  kept  as  relics  of  the  first  settlers, 
and  among  others  an  antique  chair  of  carved  wood,  which  came 
over  in  the  Mayflower,  and  still  retains  the  marks  of  the  staples 
which  fixed  it  to  the  floor  of  the  cabin.  This,  together  with  a 
seal  of  Governor  Winslow,  was  shown  me  by  an  elderly  lady, 
Mrs.  Haywood,  daughter  of  a  Winslow  and  a  White,  and  who 
received  them  from  her  grandmother.  In  a  public  building, 
called  Pilgrim  Hall,  we  saw  other  memorials  of  the  same  kind  ; 
as,  for  example,  a  chest  or  cabinet,  which  had  belonged  to  Pere 
grine  White,  the  first  child  born  in  the  colony,  and  which  came 
to  him  from  his  mother,  and  had  been  preserved  to  the  fifth 
generation  in  the  same  family,  when  it  was  presented  by  them 
to  the  Museum.  By  the  side  of  it  was  a  pewter  dish,  also  given 
by  the  White  family.  In  the  same  collection,  they  have  a  chair 
brought  over  in  the  Mayflower,  and  the  helmet  of  King  Philip, 
the  Indian  chief,  with  whom  the  first  settlers  had  many  a  des 
perate  fight. 

A  huge  fragment  of  granite,  a  boulder  which  lay  sunk  in  the 
beach,  has  always  been  traditionally  declared  to  have  been  the 
exact  spot  which  the  feet  of  the  Pilgrims  first  trod  when  they 
landed  here  ;  and  part  of  this  same  rock  still  remains  on  the 
wharf,  while  another  portion  has  been  removed  to  the  center  of 
the  town,  and  inclosed  within  an  iron  railing,  on  which  the 
names  of  forty-two  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  are  inscribed.  They 
who  can  not  sympathize  warmly  with  the  New  Englanders  for 
cherishing  these  precious  relics,  are  not  to  be  envied,  and  it  is  a 
praiseworthy  custom  to  celebrate  an  annual  festival,  not  only 
here,  but  in  places  several  thousand  miles  distant.  Often  at 


CHAP.  VII.]  PEREGRINE  WHITE.  97 

New  Orleans,  and  in  other  remote  parts  of  the  Union,  we  hear 
of  settlers  from  the  North  meeting  on  the  22d  of  December  to 
commemorate  the  birth-day  of  New  England  ;  and  when  they 
speak  fondly  of  their  native  hills  and  valleys,  and  recall  their 
early  recollections,  they  are  drawing  closer  the  ties  which  bind 
together  a  variety  of  independent  States  into  one  great  confeder 
ation. 

Colonel  Perkins,  of  Boston,  well  known  for  his  munificence, 
especially  in  founding  the  Asylum  for  the  Blind,  informed  me, 
in  1846,  that  there  was  but  one  link  wanting  in  the  chain  of 
personal  communication  between  him  and  Peregrine  White,  the 
first  white  child  born  in  Massachusetts,  a  few  days  after  the 
Pilgrims  landed.  White  lived  to  an  advanced  age,  and  was 
known  to  a  man  of  the  name  of  Cobb,  whom  Colonel  Perkins 
visited,  in  1807,  with  some  friends  who  yet  survive.  Cobb  died 
in  1808,  the  year  after  Colonel  Perkins  saw  him.  He  was  then 
blind ;  but  his  memory  fresh  for  every  thing  which  had  happened 
in  his  manhood.  He  had  served  as  a  soldier  at  the  taking  of 
Louisbourg  in  Cape  Breton,  in  1745,  and  remembered  when 
there  were  many  Indians  near  Plymouth.  The  inhabitants 
occasionally  fired  a  cannon  near  the  town  to  frighten  them,  and 
to  this  cannon  the  Indians  gave  the  name  of  "  Old  Speakum." 

When  we  consider  the  grandeur  of  the  results  w7hich  have 
been  realized  in  the  interval  of  225  years,  since  the  Mayflower 
sailed  into  Plymouth  harbor — how  in  that  period  a  nation  of 
twenty  millions  of  souls  has  sprung  into  existence  and  peopled  a 
vast  continent,  and  covered  it  with  cities,  and  churches,  schools, 
colleges,  and  railroads,  and  filled  its  rivers  and  ports  with  steam 
boats  and  shipping — we  regard  the  Pilgrim  relics  with  that  kind 
of  veneration  which  trivial  objects  usually  derive  from  high  an 
tiquity  alone.  For  we  measure  time  not  by  the  number  of  arith 
metical  figures  representing  years  or  centuries,  but  by  the  import 
ance  of  a  long  series  of  events,  which  strike  the  imagination. 
When  I  expressed  these  sentiments  to  a  Boston  friend,  he  asked 
me,  "  Why,  then,  may  we  not  believe  in  the  relics  of  the  early 
Christians  displayed  at  Rome,  which  they  say  the  mother  of 
Constantine  brought  home  from  the  Holy  Land  only  three  cen- 
VOL.  i. — E 


98  AUTHENTICITY  OF  RELICS.  [CHAP.  VII. 

turies  after  Christ — such,  for  example,  as  the  true  cross,  the  cradle 
in  which  the  infant  Jesus  lay,  the  clothes  in  which  he  was  wrap 
ped  up,  and  the  table  on  which  the  last  Supper  was  laid  ?  The 
Puritans  also  believed,  as  do  their  descendants,  that  they  were 
suffering  in  the  cause  of  religious  truth,  and  this  feeling  may  have 
imparted  additional  sanctity  to  all  memorials  of  their  exile  and 
adventures  ;  yet  how  incomparably  greater  must  have  been  the 
veneration  felt  by  the  early  Christians  for  all  that  belonged  to 
their  divine  teacher  !"  These  observations  led  me  to  dwell  on 
the  relative  authenticity  of  the  relics  in  the  two  cases — the  clear 
ness  of  the  historical  evidence  in  the  one,  its  worthlessness  in  the 
other.  It  has  been  truly  said  that  the  strength  of  every  chain 
of  historical  testimony,  like  that  of  a  chain  of  brass  or  iron,  must 
be  measured  by  the  force  of  its  weakest  link.  The  earliest  links 
in  every  traditional  tale  are  usually  the  weakest ;  but  in  the  case 
of  the  sacred  objects  said  to  have  been  obtained  by  Queen  Helena, 
there  are  more  links  absolutely  wanting,  or  a  greater  chasm  of 
years  without  any  records  whatever,  than  the  whole  period  which 
separates  our  times  from  those  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers.  The 
credulity  of  Helena,  the  notorious  impostures  of  the  monks  of  her 
age,  the  fact  that  three  centuries  elapsed  before  it  was  pretended 
that  the  true  cross  had  been  preserved,  and  another  century  be 
fore  it  was  proved  to  be  genuine  by  miracles,  and  a  still  further 
lapse  of  time  before  all  doubt  was  set  at  rest  by  the  resuscitation 
of  a  dead  person — the  extravagance  of  supposing  that  the  Chris 
tians,  when  they  escaped  with  difficulty  from  Jerusalem,  just  be 
fore  the  siege,  should  have  carried  with  them  in  their  flight  so 
cumbersome  a  piece  of  furniture  as  the  table,  have  all  been  well 
exposed.^  But  in  regard  to  the  genuineness  of  all  the  Pilgrim 
treasures  shown  me  at  Plymouth  and  elsewhere  I  indulged  entire 
faith,  until  one  day  ray  confidence  was  disturbed  in  the  Museum 
at  Salem.  A  piece  of  furniture  which  came  over  in  the  May 
flower  was  pointed  out  to  me,  and  the  antiquary  who  was  my 
guide  remarked,  that  as  the  wood  of  the  true  cross,  scattered  over 
Christendom,  has  been  said  to  be  plentiful  enough  to  build  a  man- 
of-war,  so  it  might  be  doubted  whether  a  ship  of  the  line  would 
*  Second  Travels  of  an  Irish  Gentleman,  1833,  vol.  ii.  p.  186 


CHAP.  VII.]  DECOY  POND.  99 

contain  all  the  heavy  articles  which  freighted  the  Mayflower  in 
her  first  voyage,  although  she  was  a  vessel  of  only  180  tons.  I 
immediately  recollected  a  large  heavy  table,  which  I  had  seen  in 
1842,  in  the  rooms  of  the  Historical  Society  at  Boston,  which 
they  told  me  had  come  over  in  the  Mayflower,  and  my  attention 
had  been  called  to  the  marks  of  the  staples  which  fixed  it  to  the 
cabin  floor.  I  accordingly  returned  to  that  Museum,  and  found 
there  the  sword  of  Elder  Brewster,  as  well  as  that  with  which 
Colonel  Church  cut  off  King  Philip's  ear,  and  the  gun  with  which 
that  formidable  Indian  warrior  was  shot.  The  heavy  table,  too, 
was  there,  measuring  two  feet  six  inches  in  height,  six  feet  in 
length,  and  five  feet  in  breadth,  and  I  asked  Mr.  Savage,  the 
President  of  the  Society,  how  they  obtained  it.  It  had  certainly 
belonged,  he  said,  to  Governor  Carver,  but  reasonable  doubts 
were  entertained  whether  it  had  ever  been  brought  to  New  En 
gland  in  the  Mayflower,  especially  in  the  month  of  December, 
1620;  "for  you  are  aware,"  he  added,  "that  the  Mayflower 
made  several  voyages,  and  at  each  trip  imported  many  valuables 
of  this  kind."  In  an  instant,  more  than  half  my  romance  about 
the  Pilgrim  relics  was  dispelled.  They  lost  half  the  charms  with 
which  my  implicit  faith  had  invested  them,  for  I  began  to  con 
sider  how  many  of  the  chairs  and  tables  I  had  gazed  upon  with 
so  much  interest,  might  have  been  "made  to  order,"  by  cabinet 
makers  in  the  old  country,  and  sent  out  to  the  new  colonists. 
Byron  has  said — 

^r  There's  not  a  joy  this  world  can  give  like  that  it  takes  away ;" 

and  some  may  think  the  same  of  certain  lines  of  historical  re 
search.  I  must,  however,  declare  my  firm  belief  that  some  of 
the  articles  shown  me  at  Plymouth  are  true  and  genuine  relics 
of  the  olden  time — treasures  which  really  accompanied  the  heroic 
band  who  first  landed  on  the  beach  of  Plymouth  Bay,  and  which 
deserve  to  be  handed  down  with  reverential  care  to  posterity. 

On  our  way  back  from  Plymouth  to  Boston,  we  passed  near 
the  village  of  East  Weymouth,  by  a  decoy  pond,  where  eight 
wild  geese,  called  Canada  geese,  had  been  shot  since  the  morn 
ing.  Swimming  in  the  middle  of  a  sheet  of  water  was  a  tame 


100  EXCURSION  TO  SALEM.  [CHAP.  VII. 

goose,  having  one  leg  tied  by  a  string  to  a  small  leaden  weight ; 
and  near  it  were  a  row  of  wooden  imitations  of  geese,  the  sight 
of  which,  and  the  cries  of  the  tame  goose,  attract  the  wild  birds. 
As  soon  as  they  fly  down  they  are  shot  by  sportsmen  of  a  true 
New  England  stamp,  not  like  the  Indian  hunters,  impatient  of 
a  sedentary  life  or  steady  labor,  but  industrious  cobblers,  each  sit 
ting  all  day  at  his  own  door,  with  his  loaded  gun  lying  by  his 
side,  his  hands  occupied  in  stitching  "  russet  brogans"  or  boots 
for  the  southern  negroes,  to  be  sold  at  the  rate  of  twenty  cents,  or 
tenpence  a  pair.  After  working  an  hour  or  two,  he  seizes  his 
gun,  and  down  comes  a  goose,  which  may  fetch  in  the  Boston 
market,  in  full  season,  two  and  a  half  dollars — the  value  of  a 
dozen  pair  of  brogans. 

As  we  approached  the  capital,  we  met  a  large  wooden  barn 
drawn  by  twenty-four  oxen.  It  was  placed  on  rollers,  which 
were  continually  shifted  from  behind  forward,  as  fast  as  the  barn 
passed  over  them.  The  removal  of  this  large  building  had  be 
come  necessary,  because  it  stood  directly  in  the  way  of  the  new 
railway  from  Boston  to  Plymouth,  which  is  to  be  opened  in  a  few 
weeks.  A  fellow-traveler  told  us  of  a  wooden  meeting-house  in 
Hadley,  which  had  been  transferred  in  like  manner  to  a  more 
populous  part  of  the  township.  "  In  English  steeple-chases," 
said  he,  "  the  church  itself,  I  believe,  does  not  take  part  ?" 

Nov.  6. — Made  an  excursion  to  the  seaport  of  Salem,  about 
fourteen  miles  to  the  N.E.  of  Boston,  a  place  of  17,000  inhab 
itants,  f 

Dr.  Wheatland,  a  young  physician,  to  whom  I  had  gone 
without  letters  of  introduction,  politely  showed  us  over  the 
Museum  of  Natural  History,  of  which  he  was  curator;  and 
over  another  full  of  articles  illustrative  of  the  arts,  manners,  and 
customs  of  the  East  Indies,  China,  and  Japan  ;  for  this  city  is  a 
great  resort  of  retired  merchants  and  sea-captains.  In  both  col 
lections  there  are  a  variety  of  objects  which  may  appear,  on  a 
hasty  view,  to  form  a  heterogeneous  and  unmeaning  jurnble,  but 
which  are  really  curious  and  valuable.  Such  repositories  ought 
to  accompany  public  libraries  in  every  large  city,  for  they  aflord 
a  kind  of  instruction  which  can  not  be  obtained  from  books.  To 


CHAP.  VIL]  MUSEUM.  101 

public  lectures,  which  are  much  encouraged  here,  and  are  effective 
means  of  stimulating  the  minds  of  all  classes,  especially  the  mid 
dle  and  lower,  they  furnish  essential  aid.  Among  other  specimens 
of  natural  history,  too  large  to  be  conveniently  accommodated  in 
any  private  house,  I  was  glad  of  an  opportunity  of  examining  the 
great  jaw-bones  arid  teeth  of  the  Squalus  serridens,  from  the 
South  Seas,  which  reminded  me,  by  their  serrated  outline,  of  the 
teeth  of  the  fossil  Zeuglodon,  hereafter  to  be  mentioned.  I  was 
well  pleased  to  observe  that  the  shells  of  the  neighboring  coast 
had  not  been  neglected,  for  people  are  often  as  ignorant  of  the 
natural  history  of  the  region  they  inhabit,  especially  of  the  lakes, 
rivers,  and  the  sea,  as  of  the  flora  and  fauna  of  the  antipodes. 
Many  curious  log-books  of  the  early  sea-captains  of  this  port,  who 
ventured  in  extreme  ignorance  of  geography  on  distant  voyages, 
are  preserved  here,  and  attest  the  daring  spirit  of  those  hardy 
navigators.  Some  of  them  sailed  to  India  by  the  Cape,  without 
a  single  chart  or  map,  except  that  small  one  of  the  world,  on 
Mercator's  projection,  contained  in  Guthrie's  Geography.  They 
used  no  sextants,  but,  working  their  dead-reckoning  with  chalk 
on  a  plank,  guessed  at  the  sun's  position  with  their  hand  at  noon. 
They  had  usually  no  capital,  but  started  with  a  few  beads  and 
trinkets,  and  in  exchange  for  these  trifles  often  obtained  the  skins 
of  sea-otters  in  the  Oregon  territory,  each  worth  no  less  than  100 
dollars.  They  also  obtained  sandal-wood  in  the  Sandwich  Islands, 
and  bartered  these  and  other  articles  in  China  for  tea.  On  such 
slender  means,  and  so  lately  as  after  the  separation  of  the  colonies 
from  England,  at  a  time  when  there  was  not  a  single  American 
ship  of  war  in  the  Indian  or  Chinese  seas  to  protect  their  com 
merce,  did  many  merchants  of  Boston  and  Salem  lay  the  founda 
tions  of  the  princely  fortunes  they  now  enjoy. 

In  the  course  of  the  day  we  visited  the  court-house  at  Salem, 
where  they  keep  the  warrants  issued  by  the  judges  to  the  high- 
sheriff' in  the  years  1692  and  1693,  for  the  execution  of  witches 
condemned  to  death.  Here  we  read  the  depositions  of  witnesses, 
attesting  such  facts  as  that  heifers  and  horses  had  died,  and  that 
cats  had  been  taken  ill,  and  that  a  man  had  been  pierced  by  a 
knitting-needle  to  the  depth  of  four  inches,  the  wound  healing 


102  EXECUTION  OF  WITCHES.  [CHAP.  VII. 

the  instant  the  witch  had  been  taken  up.  A  bottle  is  preserved, 
which  had  been  handed  in  to  the  Court  at  the  time  of  the  trial, 
full  of  pins,  with  which  young  women  had  been  tormented.  Some 
of  the  girls,  from  whose  bodies  these  pins  had  been  extracted, 
afterward  confessed  to  a  conspiracy.  In  the  evening  we  walked 
to  the  place  called  Gallows  Hill,  in  the  suburbs  of  the  city,  where 
no  less  than  nineteen  persons  were  hanged  as  witches  in  the 
course  of  fifteen  months. 

It  is  impossible  not  to  shudder  when  we  reflect  that  these 
victims  of  a  dark  superstition  were  tried,  so  late  as  the  year  1692, 
by  intelligent  men,  by  judges  who,  though  they  may  have  been 
less  learned,  are  reputed  to  have  been  as  upright  as  Sir  Matthew 
Hale,  who,  in  England,  condemned  a  witch  to  death  in  1665. 
The  prisoners  were  also  under  the  protection  of  a  jury,  and  the 
forms  of  law,  copied  from  the  British  courts,  so  favorable  to  the 
accused  in  capital  offenses.  We  learn  from  history  that  an 
epidemic  resembling  epilepsy  raged  at  the  time  in  Massachusetts, 
and,  being  attributed  to  witchcraft,  solemn  fasts  and  meetings  for 
extraordinary  prayers  were  appointed,  to  implore  Heaven  to  avert 
that  evil,  thereby  consecrating  and  confirming  the  popular  belief 
in  its  alleged  cause.  As  the  punishment  of  the  guilty  was  thought 
to  be  a  certain  remedy  for  the  disorder,  the  morbid  imagination 
of  the  patient  prompted  him  to  suspect  some  individual  to  be  the 
author  of  his  sufferings,  arid  his  evidence  that  he  had  seen  spectral 
apparitions  of  witches  inflicting  torments  on  him  was  received  as 
conclusive.  One  hundred  and  fifty  persons  were  in  prison  await 
ing  trial,  and  two  hundred  others  had  been  presented  to  the 
magistrate,  when  the  delusion  was  dissipated  by  charges  being 
brought  against  the  wife  of  the  Governor  Phipps,  and  some  of 
the  nearest  relatives  of  Mather,  an  influential  divine.  It  was 
then  found  that  by  far  the  greater  number  of  atrocities  had  been 
prompted  by  fear  ;  for  during  this  short  reign  of  terror  the  popular 
mind  was  in  so  disordered  a  state,  that  almost  every  one  had  to 
choose  between  being  an  accuser  or  a  victim,  and  from  this  motive 
many  afterward  confessed  that  they  had  brought  charges  against 
the  innocent.*  The  last  executions  for  witchcraft  in  England 
*  See  "  Graham's  History,"  vol.  i.  ch.  v.  p.  392. 


CHAP.  VII.]  CAUSES  OF  THE  PERSECUTION.  103 

were  as  late  as  1716  ;  but  still  later,  in  1766,  the  Seceders  in 
Scotland  published  an  act  of  their  associate  Presbytery,  denounc 
ing  that  memorable  act  of  the  English  parliament  which  repealed 
all  the  penal  statutes  against  witchcraft. 

The  equal  reverence  paid  by  the  Puritans  and  Scotch  Seceders 
to  the  Jewish  and  Christian  Scriptures  (if,  indeed,  they  did  not 
hold  the  Old  Testament  in  greater  veneration  than  the  New), 
was  the  chief  cause  of  the  superstition  which  led  to  these  judicial 
murders.  They  had,  indeed,  in  common  with  other  Protestant 
sects,  rejected  the  miracles  ascribed  to  the  Christian  saints  of  the 
middle  ages,  because  they  were  not  supported  by  sufficient  his 
torical  testimony.  They  had  stood  forward  in  the  face  of  cruel 
persecutions  courageously  to  vindicate  the  right  of  private  judg 
ment  ;  arid  they  held  it  to  be  not  only  the  privilege,  but  the  duty, 
of  every  Christian,  layman  or  ecclesiastic,  to  exercise  his  reason, 
and  not  yield  himself  up  blindly  to  the  authority  of  an  earthly 
teacher.  Yet  if  any  one  dared,  in  1692,  to  call  in  question  the 
existence  of  the  witchcraft,  he  was  stigmatized  as  an  infidel,  and 
refuted  by  the  story  of  the  Witch  of  Endor  evoking  the  ghost  of 
the  dead  Samuel.  Against  the  recurrence  of  such  dreadful 
crimes  as  those  perpetrated  in  the  years  1602—93,  society  is  now 
secured,  not  by  judges  and  juries  of  a  more  conscientious  charac 
ter  or  deeper  sense  of  religious  responsibility,  but  by  the  general 
spread  of  knowledge,  or  that  more  enlightened  public  opinion, 
which  can  never  exist  in  the  same  perfection  in  the  minds  of  the 
initiated  few,  so  long  as  the  multitude  with  whom  they  must  be 
in  contact  are  kept  in  darkness. 

On  our  return  from  Salem  to  Boston,  we  found  the  seats  im 
mediately  before  us  in  the  railway  car  occupied  by  two  colored 
men,  who  were  laughing  and  talking  familiarly  with  two  negro 
women,  apparently  servant  maids.  The  women  left  us  at  th^ 
first  station,  and  we  then  entered  into  conversation  with  the 
men  who,  perceiving  by  our  accent,  that  we  were  foreign 
ers,  were  curious  to  know  what  we  thought  of  their  country. 
Hearing  that  it  was  our  intention  to  winter  in  the  south,  the 
elder  traveler  "  hoped  we  should  not  be  tainted  there."  My 
wife,  supposing  he  alluded  to  the  yellow  fever,  said,  «  We  shall 


101  COLORED  ABOLITIONISTS.  [CHAP.  VII 

be  there  in  the  cool  season."  He  replied,  "I  was  thinking  of  the 
moral  atmosphere  of  the  southern  states."  His  pronunciation  and 
expression  were  so  entirely  those  of  a  well-educated  white  man,  that 
we  were  surprised,  and,  talking  freely  with  him  and  his  companion, 
learnt  that  the  elder,  who  was  very  black,  but  not  quite  a  full  negro, 
was  from  Delaware,  and  had  been  educated  at  an  "  abolition  college" 
in  Ohio.  The  younger,  who  was  still  darker,  had  been  a  slave  in 
Kentucky,  and  had  run  away.  They  were  traveling  to  collect 
funds  for  a  school  for  runaway  negroes,  near  Detroit,  and  expressed 
great  satisfaction  that  at  Salem  they  had  found  "  the  colored  and 
white  children  all  taught  together  in  the  same  school,  this  not 
being  the  case  in  Boston."  I  told  them  that  I  had  just  seen  a 
white  landholder  from  Barbadoes,  who  had  assured  me  that 
emancipation  had  answered  wrell  in  that  island  ;  that  there  was 
a  colored  man  in  the  legislature,  another  in  the  executive  council, 
arid  several  in  the  magistracy,  and  that  much  progress  had  been 
made  in  the  general  education  of  the  blacks.  The  Delawarian 
remarked  that  this  was  cheering  news,  because  the  recent  bad 
success  of  his  race  in  Hayti  had  been  used  as  an  argument  by 
the  southern  planters  against  their  natural  capacity  for  civiliza 
tion.  He  then  descanted  on  the  relative  liberality  of  feeling  to 
ward  colored  men  in  the  various  free  states,  and  was  very  severe 
on  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  Ohio.  I  expressed  surprise  in  regard  to 
Ohio  ;  but  the  KLentuckian  affirmed  that  the  law  there  afforded  no 
real  equality  of  protection  to  the  black  man,  as  he  could  not  give 
evidence  in  courts  of  law,  but  must  procure  a  white  man  as  a 
witness.  There  had  been  a  scuffle,  he  said,  lately  between  a  man 
of  color  and  a  white  at  Dayton,  and,  on  the  white  being  killed, 
the  mob  had  risen  and  pulled  down  the  houses  of  all  the  other 
black  people.  He  went  on  narrating  stories  of  planters  shooting 
their  slaves,  and  other  tales  of  Kentucky,  the  accuracy  of  which 
my  subsequent  visit  to  that  state  gave  me  good  reason  to  question. 
But  I  could  not  help  being  amused  with  the  patriotism  of  this 
man  ;  for,  however  unenviable  he  may  have  found  his  condition 
as  a  slave,  he  was  still  a  thorough  Kentuckian,  and  ready  to 
maintain  that  in  climate,  soil,  and  every  other  quality,  that  state 
was  immeasurably  superior  to  the  rest  of  the  Union,  especially 


CHAP.  VII.]  WHITE  AND  NEGRO  RACES.  105 

to  Ohio,  emancipation  alone  being  wanting  to  demonstrate  this 
fact  to  the  world. 

This  adventure  confirmed  me  in  the  opinion  I  had  previously 
formed,  that  if  the  colored  men  had  fair  play,  and  were  carefully 
educated,  they  might  soon  be  safely  intrusted  with  equality  of 
civil  and  political  rights.  Whatever  may  be  their  present  infe 
riority  as  a  race,  some  of  them  have  already  shown  superior 
abilities  to  a  great  many  of  the  dominant  whites.  Whether,  in 
the  course  of  many  generations,  after  the  intense  prejudices  in 
dulged  against  them  have  abated,  they  would  come  up  to  the 
intellectual  standard  of  Europeans,  is  a  question  which  time 
alone  can  decide.  It  has  been  affirmed  by  some  anatomists  that 
the  brain  of  an  adult  negro  resembles  that  of  a  white  child  ;  and 
Tiedemann,  judging  by  the  capacity  of  the  cranium,  found  the 
brains  of  some  of  our  uncivilized  British  ancestors  not  more  de 
veloped  than  the  average  sized  negro's  brain.  He  says,  "  there 
is  undoubtedly  a  very  close  connection  between  the  absolute  size 
of  the  brain,  and  the  intellectual  powers  and  functions  of  the 
mind."  After  a  long  series  of  observations  and  measurements, 
he  refutes  the  idea  that  the  brain  of  a  negro  has  more  resem 
blance  to  that  of  the  orang-outang  than  the  European  brain.*1 

Mr.  Owen,  having  some  years  ago  made  a  post-mortem  exam 
ination  at  St.  Bartholomew's  Hospital  of  the  brain  of  an  adult 
Irish  laborer,  found  that  it  did  not  weigh  more  than  the  average 
brain  of  a  youth  from  the  educated  classes  of  the  age  of  fourteen  ; 
and  he  tells  me,  in  a  letter  on  this  subject,  that  he  is  not  aware 
"  of  any  modification  of  form  or  size  in  the  negro's  brain  that 
would  support  an  inference  that  the  Ethiopian  race  would  not 
profit  by  the  same  influences  favoring  mental  and  moral  im 
provement,  which  have  tended  to  elevate  the  primitively  barbar 
ous  white  races  of  men." 

The  separation  of  the  colored  children  in  the  Boston  schools, 
before  alluded  to,  arose,  as  I  afterward  learned,  not  from  an  in 
dulgence  in  anti-negro  feelings,  but  because  they  find  they  can 
in  this  way  bring  on  both  races  faster.  Up  to  the  age  of  four 
teen  the  black  children  advance  as  fast  as  the  whites ;  but  after 
*  Phil.  Trans.  London,  1836,  p.  497. 


106  HALF  BREEDS.  [CHAP.  VII. 

that  age,  unless  there  be  an  admixture  of  white  blood,  it  becomes 
in  most  instances  extremely  difficult  to  carry  them  forward. 
That  the  half  breeds  should  be  intermediate  between  the  two 
parent  stocks,  and  that  the  colored  race  should  therefore  gain  in 
mental  capacity  in  proportion  as  it  approximates  in  physical 
organization  to  the  whites,  seems  natural ;  and  yet  it  is  a  won 
derful  fact,  psychologically  considered,  that  we  should  be  able  to 
trace  the  phenomena  of  hybridity  even  into  the  world  of  intellect 
and  reason. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

Pretended  Fossil  Sea  Serpent,  or  Zeuglodon,  from  Alabama.  —  Recent 
Appearance  of  a  Sea  Serpent  in  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence. — In  Norway,  in 
1845. — Near  Cape  Ann,  Massachusetts,  1817. — American  Descriptions. 
— Conjectures  as  to  Nature  of  the  Animal. — Sea  Snake  stranded  in  the 
Orkneys  proved  to  be  a  Shark. — Dr.  Barclay's  Memoir. — Sir  Everard 
Home's  Opinion. — Sea  Serpent  of  Hebrides,  1808. — Reasons  for  con 
cluding  that  Pontopiddan's  Sea  Snake  was  a  basking  Shark. — Capt. 
M'Quhae's  Sea  Serpent. 

DURING  the  first  part  of  my  stay  in  Boston,  October,  1845, 
we  one  day  saw  the  walls  in  the  principal  streets  covered  with 
placards,  in  which  the  words  SEA  SERPENT  ALIVE  figured  con 
spicuously.  On  approaching  near  enough  to  read  the  smaller 
type  of  this  advertisement,  I  found  that  Mr.  Koch  was  about  to 
exhibit  to  the  Bostonians  the  fossil  skeleton  of  "  that  colossal  and 
terrible  reptile  the  sea  serpent,  which,  ivhen  alive,  measured 
thirty  feet  in  circumference."  The  public  were  also  informed 
that  this  hydrarchos,  or  water  king,  was  the  leviathan  of  the 
Book  of  Job,  chapter  xli.  I  shall  have  occasion  in  the  sequel, 
when  describing  rny  expedition  in  Alabama  to  the  exact  site 
from  whence  these  fossil  remains  were  disinterred  by  Mr.  Koch, 
of  showing  that  they  belong  to  the  zeuglodon,  first  made  out  by 
Mr.  Owen  to  be  an  extinct  cetacean  of  truly  vast  dimensions, 
and  which  I  ascertained  to  be  referable  geologically  to  the 
Eocene  period. 

In  the  opinion  of  the  best  comparative  anatomists,  there  is  no 
reason  to  believe  that  this  fossil  whale  bore  any  resemblance  in 
form,  when  alive,  to  a  snake,  although  the  bones  of  the  vertebral 
column,  having  been  made  to  form  a  continuous  series,  more  than 
100  feet  in  length,  by  the  union  of  vertebrae  derived  from  more 
than  one  individual,  were  ingeniously  arranged  by  Mr.  Koch  in 
a  serpentine  form,  so  as  to  convey  the  impression  that  motion 
was  produced  by  vertical  flexures  of  the  body. 

At  the  very  time  when  I  had  every  day  to  give  an  answer  to 


108        SEA  SERPENT  IN   GULF  OF  ST.  LAWRENCE.    [CHAP.  VIII. 

the  question  whether  I  really  believed  the  great  fossil  skeleton 
from  Alabama  to  be  that  of  the  sea  serpent  formerly  seen  on  the 
coast  near  Boston,  I  received  news  of  the  reappearance  of  the 
same  serpent,  in  a  letter  from  my  friend  Mr.  J.  W.  Dawson,  of 
Pictou,  in  Nova  Scotia.  This  geologist,  with  whom  I  explored 
Nova  Scotia  in  1842,  said  he  was  collecting  evidence  for  me  of 
the  appearance,  in  the  month  of  August,  1845,  at  Merigomish, 
in  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  of  a  marine  monster,  about  100 
feet  long,  seen  by  two  intelligent  observers,  nearly  aground  in 
calm  water,  within  200  feet  of  the  beach,  where  it  remained  in 
sight  about  half  an  hour,  and  then  got  off  with  difficulty.  One 
of  the  witnesses  went  up  a  bank  in  order  to  look  down  upon  it. 
They  said  it  sometimes  raised  its  head  (which  resembled  that  of 
a  seal)  partially  out  of  the  water.  Along  its  back  were  a  num 
ber  of  humps  or  protuberances,  which,  in  the  opinion  of  the  ob 
server  on  the  beach,  were  true  humps,  while  the  other  thought 
they  were  produced  by  vertical  flexures  of  the  body.  Between 
the  head  and  the  first  protuberance  there  was  a  straight  part  of 
the  back  of  considerable  length,  and  this  part  was  generally 
above  water.  The  color  appeared  black,  and  the  skin  had  a 
rough  appearance.  The  animal  was  seen  to  bend  its  body 
almost  into  a  circle,  and  again  to  unbend  it  with  rapidity.  It 
was  slender  in  proportion  to  its  length.  After  it  had  disappeared 
in  deep  water,  its  wake  was  visible  for  some  time.  There  were 
no  indications  of  paddles  seen.  Some  other  persons  who  saw  it 
compared  the  creature  to  a  long  string  of  fishing-net  buoys 
moving  rapidly  about.  In  the  course  of  the  summer,  the  fisher 
men  on  the  eastern  shore  of  Prince  Edward's  Island,  in  the  Gulf 
of  St.  Lawrence,  had  been  terrified  by  this  sea  monster,  and  the 
year  before,  October,  1844,  a  similar  creature  swam  slowly  past 
the  pier  at  Arisaig,  near  the  east  end  of  Nova  Scotia,  and,  there 
being  only  a  slight  breeze  at  the  time,  was  attentively  observed 
by  Mr.  Barry,  a  millwright  of  Pictou,  who  told  Mr.  Dawson  he 
was  within  120  feet  of  it,  and  estimated  its  length  at  sixty  feet, 
and  the  thickness  of  its  body  at  three  feet.  It  had  humps  on 
the  back,  which  seemed  too  small  and  close  together  to  be  bends 
of  the  body. 


CHAP.  VIII.]  NORWEGIAN  SEA  SERPENT.  109 

The  body  appeared  also  to  move  in  long  undulations,  includ 
ing  many  of  the  smaller  humps.  In  consequence  of  this  motion 
the  head  and  tail  were  sometimes  both  out  of  sight  and  some 
times  both  above  water,  as  represented  in  the  annexed  outline, 
given  from  memory. 


Drawing  from  memory  of  a  sea  serpent  seen  at  Arisaig,  Nova  Scotia,  Oct.  1844. 

The  head,  a,  was  rounded  and  obtuse  in  front,  and  was  never 
elevated  more  than  a  foot  above  the  surface.  The  tail  was 
pointed,  appearing  like  half  of  a  mackerel's  tail.  The  color  of 
the  part  seen  was  black. 

It  was  suggested  by  Mr.  Dawson  that  a  swell  in  the  sea 
might  give  the  deceptive  appearance  of  an  undulating  movement, 
as  it  is  well  known  "  that  a  stick  held  horizontally  at  the  surface 
of  water  when  there  is  a  ripple  seems  to  have  an  uneven  outline." 
But  Mr.  Barry  replied  that  he  observed  the  animal  very  atten 
tively,  having  read  accounts  of  the  sea  serpent,  and  feels  confi 
dent  that  the  undulations  were  not  those  of  the  water. 

This  reappearance  of  the  monster,  commonly  called  the  sea 
serpent,  was  not  confined  to  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  ;  for,  two 
months  after  I  left  Boston,  a  letter  from  one  Captain  Lawson 
went  the  round  of  the  American  papers,  dated  February,  1846, 
giving  a  description  of  a  marine  creature  seen  by  him  from  his 
schooner,  when  off  the  coast  of  Virginia,  between  Capes  Henry 
and  Charles — body  about  100  feet  long,  with  pointed  projections 
(query,  dorsal  fins  ?)  on  the  back  ;  head  small  in  proportion  to 
its  length. 

Precisely  in  the  same  years,  in  July,  1845,  and  August,  1846, 
contemporaneous,  and  evidently  independent  accounts  were  col 
lected  iii  Norway,  and  published  in  their  papers,  of  a  marine 
animal,  of  "  a  rare  and  singular  kind,"  seen  by  fishermen  and 
others,  the  evidence  being  taken  down  by  clergymen,  surgeons, 
and  lawyers,  whose  names  are  given,  and  some  of  whom  de- 


110  NORWEGIAN  SEA  SERPENT.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

clared  that  they  can  now  no  longer  doubt  that  there  lives  in 
their  seas  some  monster,  which  has  given  rise  to  the  tales  pub 
lished  by  Pontopiddan,  Bishop  of  Bergen,  in  his  Natural  History 
of  Norway  (1752),  who  gave  an  engraving,  which  the  living  wit 
nesses  declare  to  be  very  like  what  they  saw. 

Fig.  2. 


_      ...«_..       .*^L 


Pontoppidan's  figure  of  the  Norwegian  sea  serpent,  published  1752. 

These  appearances  were  witnessed  in  1845,  near  Christian- 
sand,  and  at  Molde,  and  in  the  parish  of  Sund,  the  animal  enter 
ing  fiords  in  hot  weather,  when  the  sea  was  calm.  The  length 
of  the  creature  was  from  sixty  to  one  hundred  feet ;  color  dark, 
body  smooth,  and  in  thickness,  like  that  of  a  stout  man  ;  swim 
ming  swiftly  with  serpentine  movement,  both  horizontally  and 
up  and  down,  raising  its  blunted  head  occasionally  above  the 
water  ;  its  eyes  bright,  but  these  not  perceived  by  some  witnesses  ; 
its  undulating  course  like  that  of  an  eel ;  its  body  lay  on  the  sea 
like  a  number  of  "  large  kegs,"  the  water  much  agitated  by  its 
rapid  movements,  and  the  waves  broke  on  the  shore  as  when  a 
steam-boat  is  passing.  From  the  back  of  the  head  a  mane  like 
that  of  a  horse  commenced,  which  waved  backward  and  forward 
in  the  water.  Archdeacon  Deinboll  says,  that  "  the  eye-witnesses, 
whose  testimony  he  collected,  were  not  so  seized  with  fear  as  to 
impair  their  powers  of  observation ;  and  one  of  them,  when 
within  musket  shot,  had  fired  at  the  monster,  and  is  certain  the 
shots  hit  him  in  the  head,  after  which  he  dived,  but  came  up 
again  immediately." 

In  reading  over  these  recent  statements,  drawn  up  by  observers 
on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  it  is  impossible  not  to  be  struck 
with  their  numerous  points  of  agreement,  both  with  each  other 
and  with  those  recorded  by  the  New  Englanders  between  the 
years  1815  and  1825,  when  the  sea  serpent  repeatedly  visited 
the  coast  of  North  America.  There  is  even  a  coincidence  in 


CHAP.  VIII.]  AMERICAN  DESCRIPTIONS.  Ill 

most  of  the  contradictions  of  those  who  have  attempted  to  describe 
what  they  saw  of  the  color,  form,  and  motion  of  the  animal.  At 
each  of  these  periods  the  creature  was  seen  by  some  persons  who 
were  on  the  shore,  and  who  could  take  a  leisurely  survey  of  it, 
without  their  imaginations  being  disturbed  by  apprehensions  of 
personal  danger.  On  the  other  hand,  the  consternation  of  the 
fishermen  in  Norway,  the  Hebrides,  and  America,  who  have 
encountered  this  monster,  is  such,  that  we  are  entitled  to  ask  the 
question — Is  it  possible  they  can  have  seen  nothing  more  than 
an  ordinary  whale  or  shark,  or  a  shoal  of  porpoises,  or  some  other 
known  cetacean  or  fish  ? 

So  great  a  sensation  was  created  by  the  appearance  of  a  huge 
animal,  in  August,  1817,  and  for  several  successive  years  in  the 
harbor  of  Gloucester,  Massachusetts,  near  Cape  Ann,  that  the 
Linnsean  Society  of  Boston  appointed  a  committee  to  collect 
evidence  on  the  subject.  T  am  well  acquainted  with  two  of  the 
three  gentlemen,  Dr.  Bigelow  and  Mr.  F.  C.  Gray,  who  drew  up 
the  report,  which  gives  in  detail  the  depositions  of  numerous  wit 
nesses  who  saw  the  creature  on  shore  or  at  sea,  some  of  them 
from  a  distance  of  only  ten  yards.  "  The  monster,"  they  say, 
"  was  from  eighty  to  ninety  feet  long,  his  head  usually  carried 
about  two  feet  above  water  ;  of  a  dark  brown  color  ;  the  body 
with  thirty  or  more  protuberances,  compared  by  some  to  four- 
gallon  kegs,  by  others  to  a  string  of  buoys,  and  called  by  several 
persons  bunches  on  the  back  ;  motion  very  rapid,  faster  than 
those  of  a  whale,  swimming  a  mile  in  three  minutes,  and  some 
times  more,  leaving  a  wake  behind  him  ;  chasing  mackerel,  her 
rings,  and  other  fish,  which  were  seen  jumping  out  of  the  water, 
fifty  at  a  time,  as  he  approached.  He  only  came  to  the  surface 
of  the  sea  in  calm  and  bright  weather.  A  skillful  gunner  fired 
at  him  from  a  boat,  and,  having  taken  good  aim,  felt  sure  he 
must  have  hit  him  on  the  head  ;  the  creature  turned  toward  him, 
then  dived  under  the  boat,  and  reappeared  a  hundred  yards  on 
the  other  side." 

Just  as  they  were  concluding  their  report,  an  unlucky  accident 
raised  a  laugh  at  the  expense  of  the  Linnsean  Committee,  and 
enabled  the  incredulous  to  turn  the  whole  matter  into  ridicule. 


112  AMERICAN  DESCRIPTIONS.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

It  happened  that  a  common  New  England  species  of  land  snake 
(  Coluber  constrictor},  full  grown,  and  about  three  feet  long,  which 
must  have  been  swept  out  to  sea,  was  cast  ashore,  and  brought 
to  the  committee.  It  had  a  series  of  humps  on  its  back,  caused 
by  the  individual  happening  to  have  a  diseased  spine — a  fact 
which  can  no  longer  be  disputed,  for  I  have  seen  the  identical 
specimen,  which  is  still  preserved  in  spirits  in  the  Museum  of 
New  Haven.  As  many  of  the  deponents  declared  this  snake  to 
be  an  exact  miniature  of  the  great  monster,  the  Committee  con 
cluded  that  it  might  be  its  young,  and,  giving  a  figure  of  it, 
conferred  upon  it  the  high-sounding  appellation  of  Scoliophys 
AtloMicus,  the  generic  name  being  derived  from  the  Greek 
OKokiog,  scolios,  flexible,  and  o<2l>£f,  ophis,  snake. 

In  addition  to  these  published  statements,  Colonel  Perkins,  of 
Boston,  had  the  kindness  to  lay  before  me  his  notes,  made  in 
July,  1817,  when  he  saw  the  animal.  He  counted  fourteen  pro 
jections,  six  feet  apart,  on  the  back,  which  he  imagined  to  be 
vertical  flexures  of  the  body  when  in  motion  ;  but  he  also  saw 
the  body  bent  horizontally  into  the  figure  of  the  letter  S.  It 
was  of  a  chocolate  brown  color,  the  head  flat,  and  about  a  foot 
across.  A  friend  of  his  took  a  pencil  sketch  of  it,  which  was 
found  to  resemble  Pontoppidan's  figure.*'  Respecting  the  length, 
Mr.  Mansfield,  a  friend  of  the  Colonel,  was  driving  a  one-horse 
vehicle  on  a  road  skirting  Gloucester  Bay,  along  the  edge  of  a 
cliff,  fifty  or  sixty  feet  in  perpendicular  height,  when  he  saw  the 
sea-serpent  at  the  base  of  the  cliff  on  the  white  beach,  where 
there  was  not  more  than  six  or  seven  feet  water,  and,  giving  the 
reins  to  his  wife,  looked  down  upon  the  creature,  and  made  up 
his  mind  that  it  was  ninety  feet  long.  He  then  took  his  wife  to 
the  spot,  and  asked  her  to  guess  its  length,  and  she  said  it  was 
as  long  as  the  wharf  behind  their  house,  and  this  measured  about 
100  feet.  While  they  were  looking  down  on  it,  the  creature 
appeared  to  be  alarmed,  and  started  off.  I  asked  another  Bos- 
tonian,  Mr.  Cabot,  who  saw  the  monster  in  1818,  whether  it 
might  not  have  been  a  shoal  of  porpoises  followirg  each  other  in 
a  line,  at  the  distance  of  one  or  two  yards,  and  tumbling  over  so 
*  See  "Silliman's  Journal,"  vol.  ii.  p.  156. 


CHAP.  V1IL]  AMERICAN  DESCRIPTIONS.  113 

as  to  resemble  a  string  of  floating  barrels  in  motion.  He  said 
that  after  this  explanation  had  been  suggested  to  him,  he  was 
one  of  thirty  persons  who  ran  along  the  beach  at  Nahant,  near 
Boston,  when  the  sea  serpent  was  swimming  very  near  the  shore. 
They  were  all  convinced  that  it  was  one  animal,  and  they  saw 
it  raise  its  head  out  of  the  water.  He  added  that  there  were  at 
that  time  two  sea  serpents  fishing  in  the  Bay  at  once. 

Among  many  American  narratives  of  this  phenomenon  -which 
have  been  communicated  to  me,  I  shall  select  one  given  me  by 
my  friend  Mr.  William  M'llvaine  of  Philadelphia,  because  it 
seems  to  attest  the  fact  of  the  creature  having  wandered  as  far 
south  as  Cape  Hatteras,  in  North  Carolina,  lat.  35°.  "  Captain 
Johnson,  of  New  Jersey,  was  sailing,  in  the  year  1806,  from  the 
West  Indies,  on  the  inner  edge  of  the  gulf  stream,  in  a  deeply 
laden  brig,  when  they  were  becalmed,  and  the  crew  and  passen 
gers  awe-struck  by  the  sudden  apparition  of  a  creature  having  a 
cylindrical  body  of  great  length,  and  which  lifted  up  its  head 
eight  feet  above  the  water.  After  gazing  at  them  for  several 
minutes  it  retreated,  making  large  undulations  like  a  snake." 
The  story  had  been  so  much  discredited  that  the  captain  would 
only  relate  it  to  intimate  friends. 

After  the  year  1817,  every  marvelous  tale  was  called  in  the 
United  States  a  snake  story  ;  and  when  Colonel  Perkins  went  to 
Washington  twenty  years  ago,  and  was  asked  if  he  had  ever 
known  a  person  who  had  seen  the  sea  serpent,  he  answered  that 
he  was  one  of  the  unfortunate  individuals  who  saw  it  himself.  I 
confess  that  when  I  left  America  in  1846,  I  was  in  a  still  more 
unfortunate  predicament,  for  I  believed  in  the  sea  serpent  with 
out  having  seen  it.  Not  that  I  ever  imagined  the  northern  seas 
to  be  now  inhabited  by  a  gigantic  ophidian,  for  this  hypothesis 
has  always  seemed  to  me  in  the  highest  degree  improbable,  seeing 
that,  in  the  present  state  of  the  globe,  there  is  no  great  develop 
ment  of  reptile  life  in  temperate  or  polar  regions,  whether  in  the 
northern  or  southern  hemisphere.  When  we  enter  high  latitudes, 
such  as  those  in  which  the  creature  called  a  sea  serpent  most 
frequently  occurs,  we  find  even  the  smaller  reptilians,  such  as 
frogs  and  newts,  to  grow  rare  or  disappear  ;  and  there  are  no 


114  SEA  MONSTER  AT  STRONSA.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

representatives  of  the  hydrophis  or  true  water-snake,  nor  of  tor 
toises,  nor  of  the  batrachian  or  lizard  tribes. 

In  like  manner,  in  the  geological  periods,  immediately  ante 
cedent  to  that  when  the  present  molluscous  fauna  came  into 
existence,  there  was  a  similar  absence  of  large  reptiles,  although 
there  were  then,  as  now,  in  colder  latitudes,  many  huge  sharks, 
seals,  narwals,  and  whales.  If,  however,  the  creature  observed 
in  North  America  and  Norway,  should  really  prove  to  be  some 
unknown  species  of  any  one  of  these  last-mentioned  families  of 
vertebrata,  I  see  no  impropriety  in  its  retaining  the  English 
name  of  sea  serpent,  just  as  one  of  the  seals  is  now  called  a  sea 
elephant,  and  a  small  fish  of  the  Mediterranean,  a  sea  horse  ; 
while  other  marine  animals  are  named  sea  mice  and  urchins, 
although  they  have  only  a  fanciful  resemblance  to  hedgehogs  or 
mice. 

Some  naturalists  have  argued  that,  if  it  were  an  undescribed 
species,  some  of  its  bones  must,  ere  this,  have  been  washed  ashc-re  ; 
but  I  question  whether  we  are  as  yet  so  well  acquainted  with  all 
the  tenants  of  the  great  deep  as  to  entitle  us  to  attach  much 
weight  to  this  argument  from  negative  evidence  ;  and  I  learn 
from  good  zoologists  that  there  are  whales  so  rare  as  never  to 
have  been  seen  since  Sibbald  described  them  in  the  middle  of 
the  seventeenth  century.  There  is  also  a  great  cetacean,  about 
thirty  feet  long,  called  Delphinorhyncus  micropterus,  of  which 
only  three  specimens  have  ever  been  met  with.  One  of  these 
was  thrown  ashore  forty  years  ago  on  the  coast  of  Scotland,  and 
the  other  two  stranded  on  the  shores  of  Belgium  and  France,  and 
identified  with  the  British  species  by  Dr.  Melville. 

The  doubts,  however,  which  since  my  return  from  the  United 
States,  I  have  been  led  to  entertain  respecting  the  distinct  and 
independent  existence  of  the  sea  serpent,  arise  from  a  strong  sus 
picion  that  it  is  a  known  species  of  sea  animal  which  has%  actu 
ally  been  cast  ashore  in  the  Orkneys,  and  that  some  of  its  bones 
are  now  preserved  in  our  museums,  showing  it  to  be  of  the 
squaline  family,  and  no  stranger  to  some  of  the  zoologists  whom 
it  has  perplexed,  nor  to  many  of  the  seafaring  people  whom  it 
has  frightened.  In  the  summer  of  the  year  1808,  the  fishermen 


CHAP.  VIII.]  SEA  MONSTER  AT  STRONSA.  115 

of  the  Hebrides  were  terrified  by  a  monster  of  huge  size  and 
unusual  appearance,  which  created  a  great  sensation  in  Scotland. 
Three  or  four  months  after  this  apparition,  the  body  of  an  enor 
mous  sea  monster  was  washed  ashore  (Sept.  1808)  on  the  outer 
reefs  at  Rothesholm  Head  in  Stronsa,  one  of  the  Orkneys,  where 
it  was  first  observed  while  still  entire,  and  its  length  measured 
by  two  persons;  after  which,  when  somewhat  decayed,  it  was 
swept  in  by  another  storm,  and  stranded  on  the  beach,  and  there 
examined  by  others.  Mr.  Neill,  well  known  as  a  naturalist, 
who  had  been  on  a  visit  to  Stronsa  the  same  year,  but  had  left 
before  this  occurrence,  immediately  corresponded  with  friends  on 
the  spot,  among  others  with  Mr.  Laing,  the  historian,  and  with 
a  lawyer  and  physician,  who  collected  evidence  for  him.  Their 
affidavits,  taken  in  1808,  respecting  the  monster,  were  published 
in  the  Transactions  of  the  Wernerian  Society,  of  which  Mr. 
Neill  was  secretary,  and  were  accompanied  by  a  drawing  of  the 
skeleton,  obviously  ideal  and  very  incorrect,  with  six  legs  and  a 
long  tail  curving  several  times  vertically.  The  man  who  sketched 
it  reached  the  spot  too  late,  and  when  scarcely  any  part  of  the 
animal  remained  entire,  and  the  outline  is  admitted  to  have  been 
taken  by  him  and  altered  from  a  figure  chalked  out  upon  a  table 
by  another  man  who  had  seen  it,  while  one  witness  denied  its 
resemblance  to  what  he  had  seen.  But  a  carpenter,  whose 
veracity,  I  am  informed  by  Mr.  Neill  (in  a  letter  dated  1848), 
may  be  trusted,  had  measured  the  carcass,  when  still  whole,  with 
his  foot-rule,  and  found  it  to  be  fifty-five  long,  while  a  person 
who  also  measured  it  when  entire,  said  it  was  nine  fathoms  long. 
The  bristles  of  the  mane,  each  fourteen  inches  in  length,  and 
described  as  having  been  luminous  in  the  dark,  were  no  doubt 
portions  of  a  dorsal  fin  in  a  state  of  decomposition.  One  said 
that  this  mane  extended  from  the  shoulders  to  within  two  feet 
and  a  half  of  the  tail,  another  that  it  reached  to  the  tail  :  a 
variance  which  may  entitle  us  to  call  in  question  the  alleged  con 
tinuity  of  the  mane  down  the  whole  back.  So  strong  was  the 
propensity  in  Scotland  to  believe  that  the  Stronsa  animal  was  the 
sea  serpent  of  the  Norwegians,  that  Mr.  Neill  himself,  after  draw 
ing  up  for  the  Wernerian  Society  his  description  of  it  from  the 


116  SIR  EVERARD  HOME'S  OPINION.          [CHAP.  VIII. 

different  accounts  communicated  to  him,  called  it  Halsydrus  Pon- 
toppidani. 

Parts  of  the  cranium,  scapular  arch,  fin,  and  vertebral  column 
were  sent  to  Dr.  Barclay  of  Edinburgh,  who  had  at  that  time 
the  finest  museum  of  comparative  anatomy  north  of  the  Tweed, 
and  he  conceived  them  to  belong  to  a  new  and  entirely  unknown 
monster. 

If  the  imagination  of  good  zoologists  could  be  so  preoccupied 
as  to  cause  them  at  once  to  jump  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
Stronsa  animal  and  the  Norwegian  sea  serpent  were  one  and  the 
same,  we  can  not  be  surprised  that  the  public  in  general  placed 
the  most  implicit  faith  in  that  idea.  That  they  did  so,  is  proved 
by  a  passage  recently  published  in  Beattie's  Life  of  Campbell, 
where  the  poet  writes  thus,  in  a  letter  dated  February  13th, 
1809: — 

"  Of  real  life  let  me  see  what  I  have  heard  for  the  last  fort 
night  :  first,  a  snake — rny  friend  Telford  received  a  drawing  of  it 
— has  been  found  thrown  on  the  Orkney  Isles  ;  a  sea  snake  with 
a  mane  like  a  horse,  four  feet  thick,  and  fifty-five  feet  long.  This 
is  seriously  true.  Malcolm  Laing,  the  historian,  saw  it,  and  sent 
a  drawing  of  it  to  my  friend."^ 

Now  here  we  see  the  great  inaccuracy  of  what  may  be  styled 
contemporaneous  testimony  of  a  highly  educated  man,  who  had 
no  motive  or  disposition  to  misrepresent  facts.  From  the  Wer- 
rierian  Transactions  and  Mr.  Neill's  letter,  I  learn  distinctly  that 
Malcolm  Laing  never  went  to  the  shore  of  Stronsa  to  see  the 
monster. 

Fortunately,  several  of  the  vertebrae  were  forwarded,  in  1809, 
to  Sir  Everard  Home,  in  London,  who  at  once  pronounced  them 
to  belong  to  the  Squalus  maximus,  or  common  basking  shark. 
Figures  of  other  portions  sent  to  Edinburgh  to  Dr.  Barclay,  were 
also  published  by  him  in  the  Wernerian  Transactions,  and  agree 
very  Avell  with  Home's  decision,  although  it  is  clear,  from  Bar 
clay's  Memoir,  that  he  was  very  angry  with  the  English  anat 
omist  for  setting  him  right,  and  declaring  it  to  be  a  shark.  It 
was  indeed  very  difficult  to  believe  on  any  but  the  most  con- 
*  Campbell's  Life,  vol.  ii.  p.  169,  170. 


CHAP.  VIII.]  SEA  SERPENT  OF  HEBRIDES.  117 

vincing  evidence  that  a  carcass  which  was  fifty-five  feet  long 
could  be  referable  to  a  species,  the  largest  known  individual  of 
which  has  never  exceeded  thirty-five  or  forty  feet.  But  there 
seems  no  escape  from  Home's  verdict ;  for  the  vertebrae  are  still 
in  the  College  of  Surgeons,  where  I  have  seen  them,  quite  entire, 
and  so  identical  with  those  of  the  Squalus  vnaximus,  that  Mr. 
Owen  is  unwilling  to  imagine  they  can  belong  to  any  other  spe 
cies  of  the  same  genus. 

Mr.  Neill  tells  me,  in  his  letter,  that  the  basking  shark  is  by 
no  means  uncommon  in  the  Orkneys,  where  it  is  called  the  hock- 
mar,  and  a  large  one  was  killed  in  Stromness  Harbor  in  1804, 
when  he  was  there  ;  yet  it  was  agreed  by  all  with  whom  he 
spoke  in  1808,  that  the  Stronsa  animal  was  double  the  length 
of  the  largest  hockrnar  ever  stranded  in  their  times  in  Orkney. 

Unfortunately,  no  one  observed  the  habits  and  motions  of  the 
monster  before  it  was  cast  ashore  ;  but  the  Rev.  Donald  Maclean, 
of  Small  Isles  in  the  Hebrides,  was  requested  to  draw  up  a  state 
ment  of  what  he  recollected  of  the  creature  which  had  so  much 
alarmed  the  fishermen  in  the  summer  of  the  same  year.  Before 
he  penned  his  letter,  which  was  printed  as  an  appendix  to  Bar 
clay's  Memoir  in  1809,^  he  had  clearly  been  questioned  by  per 
sons  who  were  under  the  full  persuasion  that  what  he  had  seen, 
and  the  Stronsa  animal,  were  identical  with  Pontoppidan's  sea 
serpent.  Maclean  informs  us,  that  it  was  about  the  month  of 
June,  1808,  when  the  huge  creature  in  question,  which  looked 
at  a  distance  like  a  small  rock  in  the  sea,  gave  chase  to  his 
boat,  and  he  saw  it  first  from  the  boat,  and  afterward  from  the 
land. 

Its  head  was  broad,  of  a  form  somewhat  oval ;  its  neck  rather 
smaller.  It  moved  by  undulations  up  and  down.  When  the 
head  was  above  water,  its  motion  was  not  so  quick  ;  when  most 
elevated,  it  appeared  to  take  a  view  of  distant  objects  It  direct 
ed  its  "  monstrous  head,"  which  still  continued  above  water, 
toward  the  boat,  and  then  plunged  violently  under  water  in  pur 
suit  of  them.  Afterward,  when  he  saw  it  from  the  shore,  "  it 
moved  off  with  its  head  above  water  for  about  half  a  mile 
*  Wern.  Trans.  vOl,  i.  p.  444, 


118  SEA  SERPENT  OF  HEBRIDES.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

before  he  lost  sight  of  it.  Its  length  he  believed  to  be  from 
seventy  to  eighty  feet."  "  About  the  same  time  the  crews  of 
thirteen  fishing  boats,  off  the  island  of  Canna,  were  terrified  by 
this  monster  ;  and  the  crew  of  one  boat  saw  it  coming  toward 
them,  between  Rum  and  Canna,  with  its  head  high  above 
water."* 

Mr.  Maclean  adds,  evidently  in  answer  to  a  question  put  by 
his  correspondent,  thaft  he  saw  nothing  of  the  mane  ;  arid  adds, 
"  when  nearest  to  me  it  did  not  raise  its  head  wholly  above  water, 
so  that  the  neck  being  under  water,  I  could  perceive  no  shining 
filaments  thereon,  if  it  had  any."  And  he  also  observes  :  "It 
had  110  fin  that  I  could  perceive,  and  seemed  to  me  to  move 
progressively  by  undulations  up  and  down."  Most  of  my  read 
ers  are  probably  satisfied  by  this  time,  that  if  nothing  had  come 
down  to  us  but  oral  testimony,  or  even  published  accounts  with 
out  figures  respecting  the  creature  seen  in  the  Hebrides  in  1808, 
as  well  as  that  afterward  stranded  in  Orkney,  we  should  all  of 
us  have  felt  sure  that  both  of  them  were  one  and  the  same  mon 
ster,  and  no  other  than  the  sea  snake  of  Pontoppidan,  or  that  so 
often  seen  on  the  eastern  coast  of  North  America.  How  much 
delusion  in  this  case  has  been  dispelled  by  the  preservation  of  a 
few  bones  !  May  we  not  then  presume  that  other  sea  serpents 
were  also  sharks  ?  If  so,  how  are  we  to  reconcile  recorded  ap 
pearances  with  this  hypothesis  ?  It  was  justly  remarked  by  Dr. 
Fleming,  in  his  British  Animals,  1828  (p.  174),  that  Maclean's 
account  of  a  creature,  which  raised  its  head  above  the  water  and 
viewed  distant  objects,  was  opposed  to  the  idea  of  its  being  refer 
able  to  the  class  of  cartilaginous  fishes,  for  no  shark  lifts  its  head 
out  of  the  sea  as  it  swims.  E  may  also  remark,  that  the  de 
scriptions  commonly  given,  both  by  the  Norwegians  and  North 
Americans,  would  agree  better  with  the  appearance  of  a  large 
seal  with  a  marie,  chased  by  a  shoal  of  porpoises,  than  with  a  shark. 

But  when  we  question  the  evidence  more  closely,  we  must 

make  great  allowance  for  the  incompetence  of  observers  wholly 

ignorant  of  zoology.      In  the  first  place,  we  must  dismiss  from 

our  minds  the  image  of  a  shark  as  it  appears  when  out  of  the 

*  Wern.  Trans,  Edinburgh,  vol.  i.  p.  444, 


CHAP.  VIII.] 


BASKING  SHARK. 


119 


water,  or  as  stuffed  in  a  museum.  The  annexed  figure  represents 
the  outline  of  the  Squalus  maximus,  of  which  when  immersed, 
but  swimming  near  the  surface,  three  points  only  could  be  seen 
above  water  at  the  same  time,  namely,  the  prominence  of  the 
back,  with  the  first  dorsal  fin,  a;  secondly,  the  second  dorsal  fin, 
b  ;  and  thirdly,  the  upper  lobe  of  the  tail,  c. 

Fig.  3. 


Squalus  maximus,  Basking  Shark,  or  Hockinar. 
a.  First  dorsal  fin  ;  b.  Second  dorsal  fin  ;  c.  Caudal  fin. 

Dr.  Melville  informed  me  that  he  once  saw  a  large  species  of 
shark,  swimming  at  the  rate  of  ten  miles  an  hour,  in  Torres 
Strait,  off  Australia  ;  and,  besides  the  lateral  flexures  of  the  tail, 
which  are  the  principal  propelling  power,  the  creature  described 
as  it  advanced  a  series  of  vertical  undulations,  not  by  the  actual 
bending  of  the  body  itself,  but  by  the  whole  animal  first  rising 
near  to  the  surface  and  then  dipping  down  again,  so  that  the 
dorsal  fin  and  part  of  the  back  were  occasionally  lifted  up  to  a 
considerable  height.  Now  it  strikes  me,  that  if  a  very  huge 
shark  was  going  at  the  rate  of  twenty  miles  an.  hour,  as  stated 
by  some  of  the  observers,  that  portion  of  the  back  which  emerged 
in  front  might  easily  be  taken  for  the  head,  and  the  dorsal  fin 
behind  it  for  the  mane  ;  and  in  this  manner  we  may  explain  the 
three  projecting  points,  a,  b,  c,  fig.  1,  p.  109.  given  in  the 
drawing,  sketched  from  memory,  by  Mr.  Barry  of  Nova  Scotia. 
The  smaller  undulations  seen  by  the  same  person,  intervening  be 
tween  the  three  larger,  may  very  well  be  referred  to  a  series  of 
waves  raised  in  the  water  by  a  rapid  passage  through  it  of  so 
bulky  a  body.  Indeed,  some  of  the  drawings  which  I  have  seen 


120  SEA  SNAKE  A  BASKING  SHARK.  [CHAP.  VI1L 

of  the  northern  sea  snake,  agree  perfectly  with  the  idea  of  the 
projecting  back  of  a  shark  followed  by  a  succession  of  waves, 
diminishing  in  size  as  they  recede  from  the  dorsal  prominence. 

The  parts  before  mentioned  as  alone  visible  above  water  would 
form  so  small  a  portion  of  the  whole  body,  that  they  might  easily 
convey  the  notion  of  narrowness  as  compared  to  great  length  ; 
and  the  assertion  of  a  few  witnesses  that  the  dorsal  projections 
were  pointed,  may  have  arisen  from  their  having  taken  a  more 
accurate  look  at  the  shape  of  the  fins,  and  distinguished  them 
better  from  the  intervening  waves  of  the  sea.  But,  according  to 
this  view,  the  large  eyes  seen  in  the  "  blunt  head"  by  several 
observers,  must  have  been  imaginary,  unless  in  cases  where  they 
may  have  really  been  looking  at  a  seal.  It  can  hardly  be  doubted 
that  some  good  marksmen,  both  in  Norway  and  New  England, 
who  fired  at  the  animal,  sent  bullets  into  what  they  took  to  be 
the  head,  and  the  fact  that  the  wound  seems  never  to  have  pro 
duced  serious  injury,  although  in  one  case  blood  flowed  freely, 
accords  perfectly  with  the  hypothesis  that  they  were  firing  at  the 
dorsal  prominence,  and  not  at  the  head  of  a  shark.  The  opinion 
of  most  of  the  observers  that  the  undulations  were  coincident  with 
the  rapid  movements  of  the  creature,  agrees  well  with  our  theory, 
which  refers  the  greater  number  of  the  projections  to  waves  of 
the  sea.  On  the  other  hand,  as  several  of  the  protuberances  are 
real,  consisting  of  three  fins  and  a  part  of  the  back,  the  emergence 
of  these  parts  may  explain  what  other  witnesses  beheld.  Dr. 
Melville  has  suggested  to  me,  that  if  the  speed  were  as  great  as 
stated,  and  the  progressive  movement  such  as  he  has  described,*" 
the  three  fins  would  be  first  submerged,  and  then  re-emerge  in 
such  rapid  succession,  that  the  image  of  one  set  would  be  retained 
on  the  retina  of  the  eye  after  another  set  had  become  visible,  and 
they  might  be  counted  over  and  over  again,  and  multiplied  in 
definitely.  Although  I  think  this  explanation  unnecessary  in 
most  cases,  such  a  confusion  of  the  images  seems  very  possible, 
when  we  recollect  that  the  fins  would  be  always  mingled  •with 
waves  of  the  sea,  which  are  s-aid,  in  the  Norwegian  accounts  of 
1845,  to  have  been  so  great,  that  they  broke  on  the  coast  in 
*  Ante,  p,  119. 


CKAP.  VIII.]         CAPT.  M'QUHAE'S  SEA  SERPENT.  121 

calm  weather,  when  the  serpent  swam  by,  as  if  a  steamer  at  full 
speed  was  passing  near  the  shore. 

I  conclude,  therefore,  that  the  sea  serpent  of  North  America 
and  the  German  Ocean  is  a  shark,  probably  the  Squalus  maxl- 
mus,  a  species  which  seems,  from  the  measurements  taken  in 
Orkney  in  1808,  to  attain  sometimes,  when  old,  a  much  larger 
size  than  had  ever  been  previously  imagined.  It  may  be  objected 
that  this  opinion  is  directly  opposed  to  a  great  body  of  evidence 
which  has  been  accumulating  for  nearly  a  century,  derived  partly 
from  experienced  sea-faring  men,  and  partly  from  observers  on  the 
land,  some  of  whom  were  of  the  educated  class.  I  answer  that 
most  of  them  caught  glimpses  only  of  the  creature  when  in  rapid 
motion  and  in  its  own  element,  four-fifths  or  more  of  the  body 
being  submerged  ;  and  when,  at  length,  the  whole  carcass  of  a 
monster  mistaken  for  a  sea  snake  was  stranded,  touched,  and 
measured,  and  parts  of  it  sent  to  the  ablest  anatomists  and  zo 
ologists  in  Scotland,  we  narrowly  escaped  having  transmitted  to 
us,  without  power  of  refutation,  a  tale  as  marvelous  and  fabulous 
concerning  its  form  and  nature,  as  was  ever  charged  against  Pon- 
toppidan  by  the  most  skeptical  of  his  critics.^ 

*  After  the  above  was  written,  a  letter  appeared  in  the  English  news 
papers,  by  Captain  M'Quhae,  R.N.,  of  the  Daedalus  frigate,  dated  Oct.  7, 
1848,  giving  an  account  of  "the  sea  serpent"  seen  by  him,  Aug.  6,  1848, 
lat.  24°  44'  S.  between  the  Cape  and  St.  Helena,  about  300  miles  distant 
from  the  western  coast  of  Africa ;  the  length  estimated  at  sixty  feet,  head 
held  four  feet  above  water,  with  something  like  the  mane  of  a  horse  on  its 
back  which  was  straight  and  inflexible.  Professor  Owen  has  declared  his 
opinion,  after  seeing  the  drawing  of  the  animal,  sent  to  the  Admiralty  by 
Captain  M'Quhae,  "  that  it  may  have  been  the  largest  of  the  seal  tribe,  the 
sea-elephant  of  the  southern  whalers,  Phoca  proboscidea,  which  sometimes 
attains  a  length  of  thirty  feet,  and  individuals  of  which  have  been  known  to 
have  been  floated  by  icebergs  toward  the  Cape.  This  species  has  coarse 
hair  on  the  upper  part  of  its  inflexible  trunk  which  might  appear  like  a  mane. 
The  chief  impelling  force  would  be  the  deeply  immersed  terminal  fins  and 
tail,  which  would  create  a  long  eddy,  readily  mistakable  for  an  indefinite 
prolongation  of  the  body." 

Mr.  Owen's  conjecture  appears  to  me  very  probable ;  but,  before  I  heard 
\t,  I  had  made  up  my  mind  that  the  creature  seen  by  Captain  M'Quhae  dif 
fered  from  the  sea  serpent  of  the  Norwegians  and  New  Epglanders,  from 
whose  description  it  varies  materially,  especially  in  the  absence,  when  at  full 
speed,  of  apparent  undulations,  or  dorsal  prominences. 
VOL.  I. — F 


CHAPTER  IX 

Boston. — No  Private  Lodgings. — Boarding-houses. — Hotels. — Effects  of  the 
Climate  on  Health. — Large  Fortunes. — Style  of  Living. — Servants. — 
Carriages. — Education  of  Ladies. — Marriages. — Professional  Incomes.' — 
Protectionist  Doctrines. — Peculiarities  of  Language. — Literary  Tastes. 
— Cost  of  Living. — Alarms  of  Fire. 

As  we  intended  to  pass  nearly  two  months  in  Boston,  we  de 
termined  to  look  out  for  private  lodgings,  such  as  might  be  met 
with  in  every  large  town  in  England,  but  which  we  found  it 
almost  impossible  to  procure  here.  It  does  not  answer  to  keep 
houses,  or  even  suites  of  apartments  to  let  in  a  city  where  house- 
rent  is  so  dear,  and  well-trained  servants  so  difficult  to  hire,  even 
at  high  wages.  In  this  country,  moreover,  the  mass  of  the  peo 
ple  seem  to  set  less  value  on  the  privilege  of  living  in  private  than 
we  English  do.  Not  only  strangers  and  bachelors,  but  whole 
families,  reside  in  boarding-houses,  usually  kept  by  a  widow  who 
has  known  better  days,  and  is  a  good  manager,  and  can  teach  and 
discipline  servants. 

During  a  former  tour,  we  had  found  it  irksome  to  submit  to 
the  rules  of  a  boarding-house  for  any  length  of  time  ;  to  take  every 
meal  at  a  public  table,  where  you  are  expected  to  play  the  agree 
able  to  companions  often  uncongenial,  and  brought  together  on 
no  principle  of  selection  ;  to  join  them  in  the  drawing-room  a  short 
time  before  dinner  ;  to  call  on  them  in  their  rooms,  and  to  listen 
to  gossip  arid  complaints  about  the  petty  quarrels  which  so  often 
arise  among  fellow-boarders,  as  in  a  ship  during  a  long  voyage. 
The  only  alternative  is  to  get  private  rooms  in  an  hotel,  which 
I  at  length  succeeded  in  procuring  at  the  Tremont  House,  after 
I  had  failed  in  negotiating  a  treaty  with  several  landlords  to 
whom  I  had  been  recommended.  One  of  these,  after  showing 
me  his  apartments,  and  stating  his  terms,  ended  by  saying,  "Ours 
is  a  temperance  house — prayers  orthodox."  I  presume  that  my 
countenance  betrayed  the  amusement  which  this  last  piece  of  in- 


CHAP*  IX.]  EXCESSIVE  INDUSTRY.  123 

telligence  afforded  me,  for  he  instantly  added,  in  an  under  tone, 
"  But  if  you  and  your  lady  should  not  attend  prayers,  it  will  not 
be  noticed." 

A  Bostonian,  who  had  returned  from  a  tour  in  England  and 
Ireland,  much  struck  with  the  poverty  of  the  lower  classes,  and 
with  the  difficulties  experienced  by  those  who  are  struggling  to 
rise  in  the  world,  remarked  to  me,  "  We  ought  to  be  happier 
than  the  English,  although  we  do  not  look  so."  There  is,  in 
fact,  a  care-worn  expression  in  the  countenances  of  the  New 
Englanders,  which  arises  partly  from  their  striving  and  anxious 
disposition,  and  their  habits  of  hard  work,  mental  and  bodily, 
and  partly  from  the  effects  of  the  climate. 

One  of  their  lawyers  expressed  to  me  his  regret  that  the  mem 
bers  of  his  profession,  and  their  most  eminent  politicians,  physicians, 
and  literary  men,  would  not  spare  themselves,  and  give  up  some 
time  to  relaxation.  "  They  seem  determined,"  he  said,  "  to 

realize  the  sentiment  so  finely  expressed  by  Milton — 
• 
'  To  scorn  delights,  and  live  laborious  days.' 

Our  ancestors  had  to  work  fifteen  hours  out  of  every  twenty-four, 
in  order  not  to  starve  in  the  wilderness ;  but  we  persist  in  strain 
ing  every  nerve  when  that  necessity  has  ceased."  He  then 
reminded  me  how  much  more  cheerful,  plump,  and  merry  the 
young  negro  children  looked  in  the  South,  than  those  of  New 
England,  who  had  all  the  appearance  of  having  been  forced  in 
their  education,  and  over-crammed  at  school. 

I  suspect,  however,  that  the  principal  cause  of  the  different 
aspect  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  in  England  and  America  is  the 
climate.  During  both  our  tours  through  the  United  States,  my 
wife  and  I  enjoyed  excellent  health,  and  were  delighted  with  the 
clearness  of  the  atmosphere,  the  bright  sun,  and  the  great  num 
ber  of  cloudless  days  ;  but  we  were  told  that,  if  we  staid  a 
second  year,  we  should  feel  less  vigorous.  Many  who  have  been 
,  bom  in  America,  of  families  settled  there  for  several  generations, 
find  their  health  improved  by  a  visit  to  England,  just  as  if  they 
had  returned  to  their  native  air  ;  and  it  may  require  several 
centuries  before  a  race  becomes  thoroughly  acclimatized. 


124  EFFECTS  OF  CLIMATE  ON  HEALTH.        [CHAP.  IX. 

The  great  difference  of  the  species  of  indigenous  animals  and 
plants  in  North  America,  those  of  the  middle  and  southern  states 
being  almost  all  distinct  from  the  European,  points  to  a  wide 
diversity  of  climate,  the  atmosphere  being  drier,  and  there  being 
a  much  greater  annual  range  of  the  thermometer  than  in  cor 
responding  latitudes  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  Atlantic.  Even 
BO  cosmopolite  a  being  as  man  may  demand  more  than  two 
centuries  and  a  quarter  before  he  can  entirely  accommodate  his 
constitution  to  such  altered  circumstances,  and  before  the  succes 
sive  generations  of  parents  can  acquire  themselves,  and  transmit 
to  their  offspring,  the  new  and  requisite  physiological  peculiarities. 

English  travelers  often  ascribe  the  more  delicate  health  of  the 
inhabitants  here  to  their  in-door  habits  and  want  of  exercise. 
But  it  is  natural  that  they  should  shrink  from  exposing  them 
selves  to  the  severe  frosts  and  long-continued  snows  of  winter, 
and  to  the  intense  heat  of  the  summer's  sun.  An  Englishman 
is  usually  recognized  at  once  in  a  party,  by  a  more  robust  look, 
and  greater  clearness  and  ruddiness  of  complexion  ;  and  it  is 
surprising  how  distinguishable  he  is  even  from  persons  born  of 
English  parents  in  the  United  States.  It  is  also  a  curious  fact, 
which  seems  generally  admitted,  that  the  native  Anglo-Austra 
lians  bear  a  considerable  resemblance  to  the  Anglo-Americans  in 
look  and  manner  of  speaking,  which  is  a  mystery,  for  there  is 
certainly  in  that  case  no  analogy  between  the  climates  of  the 
two  countries. 

^The  number  of  persons  in  Boston  who  have  earned  in  business, 
or  have  inherited  large  fortunes,  is  very  great.  The  Common, 
a  small  park,  which  is  by  no  means  the  only  quarter  frequented 
by  rich  citizens,  is  surrounded  by  houses  which  might  form  two 
fine  squares  in  London,  and  the  average  value  of  which^in  the 
market,  might  bear  a  comparison  with  those  in  very  fashionable 
parts  of  our  metropolis — sums  of  from  4000Z.  to  20,000/.  ster 
ling  having  been  paid  for  them.  The  greater  part  of  these 
buildings  are  the  property  of  the  persons  who  reside  in  them  ; 
and  they  are  fitted  up  very  elegantly,  and  often  expensively. 
fEntertainments  in  a  sumptuous  style  are  not  rare ;  but  the  small 
number  of  servants  in  comparison  with  those  kept  in  England  by 


CHAP.  IX.]  STYLE  OF  LIVING.— SERVANTS.  125 

persons  of  corresponding  income,  and  the  want  of  an  equipage, 
impart  to  their  mode  of  life  an  appearance  of  simplicity  which 
is  perhaps  more  the  result  of  necessity  than  of  deference  to  a 
republican  theory  of  equalitjjj  For  to  keep  servants  here  for 
mere  show,  would  not  only  be  thought  absurd,  but  would  be  a 
great  sacrifice  of  comfort.  To  obtain  a  few  efficient  ones  at  any 
price,  and  to  put  up  with  many  inconveniences  rather  than  part 
with  them — allowing  them  to  continue  in  service  after  marriage, 
is  the  practice  of  not  a  few  of  the  richest  people,  who  often  keep 
no  more  than  four  domestics  where  there  would  be  at  least  nine 
in  London.^  In  consequence  of  this  state  of  things,  the  ladies  are 
more  independent  of  being  waited  on  than  those  of  similar  fortune 
in  England ;  but  we  are  sometimes  amused  when  we  hear  them 
express  envy  of  the  superior  advantages  enjoyed  in  Europe,  for 
they  are  under  the  delusion  of  supposing  that  large  establish 
ments  give  no  trouble  in  "  the  old  country."  There  are,  indeed, 
crowds  of  poor  emigrants  here,  especially  from  Ireland,  eager  for 
employment ;  but  for  the  most  part  so  coarse,  ignorant,  and  dirty 
in  their  habits,  that  they  can  not  gain  admittance  into  genteel 
houses.  No  mistress  here  ventures  to  interfere  with  the  dress  of 
a  servant  maid,  and  girls  wait  at  table  with  braided  hair,  which 
is  certainly  more  becoming  to  them  when  young,  and  are  never 
required  to  conceal  with  a  cap  their  neatly  arranged  locks, 
according  to  the  costume  approved  of  by  English  disciplinarians. 
When  raising  the  dust  at  their  work,  in  sweeping  the  floors, 
they  cover  the  head  with  a  handkerchief.  The  New  England 
servants  are  generally  provident,  for,  besides  the  intelligence  they 
derive  from  their  early  school  education,  they  have  a  reasonable 
hope  of  bettering  their  condition,  are  well  paid,  and  not  kept  >,,- 
down  in  the  world  by  a  number  of  poor  relations. 

(Many  of  the  wealthiest  families  keep  no  carriage,  for,  as  I 
before  said,  no  one  affects  to  live  in  style,  and  the  trouble  of 
engaging  a  good  coachman  and  groom  would  be  considerable, 
and  also  because  the  distances  in  Boston  are  small,  and  the 
facilities  of  traveling  by  railway  into  the  country  in  all  directions 
very  great.  But  there  are  many  livery  stables,  where  excellent 
carriages  and  horses  are  to  be  hired  with  well-dressed  drivers. 


126  EDUCATION  OF  LADIES.  [CHAP.  IX. 

Some  of  their  vehicles  are  fitted  up  with  India-rubber  tubes,  to 
enable  those  inside  to  communicate  with  the  coachman  without 
letting  down  the  glass,  which,  during  a  severe  New  England 
frost,  or  a  snow  storm,  must  be  no  unmeaning  luxury. 

They  who  can  not  afford  to  live  in  the  metropolis,  reside  with 
their  families  at  places  often  twenty-five  miles  distant,  such  as 
Ipswich,  and  go  into  their  shops  and  counting-houses  every  morn 
ing,  paying  100  dollars  (or  twenty  guineas),  for  an  annual  ticket 
on  the  railway,  and  being  less  than  an  hour  at  a  time  on  the 
road. 

The  usual  hours  of  breakfasting  and  dining  here  are  much  earlier 
than  in  London  ;  yet  evening  parties  in  the  most  fashionable 
society  do  not  begin  till  nine,  and  often  ten  o'clock,  which  appears 
a  senseless  imitation  of  foreign  manners,  and  calculated,  if  not 
intended,  to  draw  a  line  between  those  who  can  afford  to  turn 
night  into  day.  and  those  who  can  not. 

In  some  houses  the  gentlemen  go  up  after  dinner  with  the 
ladies,  as  in  France,  to  the  drawing-room  ;  but  it  is  more  com 
mon,  as  in  England,  to  stay  a  while  and  talk  together.  There 
is  very  little  drinking,  and  I  scarcely  ever  heard  any  conversation 
in  which  the  women  might  not  have  joined  with  propriety. 
Bachelor  dinners  are  more  frequent  than  in  the  highest  circles 
in  London ;  but  there  is  beginning  to  be  a  change  in  this  respect, 
and  certainly  the  ladies  are  well  able  to  play  their  part,  for  no 
care  or  expense  is  spared  to  give  them,  not  only  every  female 
accomplishment,  but  a  solid  education.  The  incomes  made  by 
some  men  of  superior  scholarship  and  general  knowledge,  who 
devote  themselves  entirely  to  the  teaching  of  young  ladies,  and, 
still  more,  the  station  held  by  these  teachers  in  society,  is  a  char 
acteristic  of  Boston  highly  deserving  of  praise  and  imitation. 

The  influence  of  cultivated  women  in  elevating  and  refining 
the  tone  of  society  and  the  national  mind,  may  nowhere  be  ren 
dered  more  effective  than  where  a  large  proportion  of  the  men 
are  engaged  in  mercantile  business,  and  belong  to  a  class  who 
have  too  truly  been  said  "  to  live  in  counting-houses  that  they 
may  sleep  in  palaces."  Their  wives  and  daughters  have  leisure 
to  acquire  literary  and  scientific  tastes,  and  to  improve  their 


CHAP.  IX.]  MARRIAGES.  127 

understandings,  while  the  fathers,  husbands,  and  brothers  are 
summing  up  accounts,  attending  to  the  minute  details  of  business, 
or  driving  bargains. 

The  impress  of  the  strict  morals  of  the  Puritan  founders  of  the 
New  England  commonwealths  on  the  manners  of  their  descend 
ants,  is  still  very  marked.  Swearing  is  seldom  heard,  and  duel 
ing  has  been  successfully  discountenanced,  although  they  are  in 
constant  communication  with  the  southern  states,  where  both 
these  practices  are  common,  though  much  less  so  than  formerly. 

The  facility  of  getting  on  in  the  world,  and  marrying  young, 
is,  upon  the  whole,  most  favorable  to  the  morals  of  the  commu 
nity,  although  it  sometimes  leads  to  uncongenial  and  unhappy 
unions.  But,  as  a  set-off  to  this  evil,  it  should  be  stated,  that 
nowhere  is  there  so  much  free  choice  in  forming  matrimonial 
connections  without  regard  to  equality  of  fortune.  It  is  un 
avoidable  that  the  aristocracy  of  taste,  manners,  and  education 
should  create  barriers,  which  can  not  be  set  at  naught  without 
violence  to  the  feelings  ;  but  we  had  good  opportunities  of  know 
ing  that  parents  would  be  thought  far  more  unreasonable  here 
than  in  England,  and  in  some  other  states  of  the  Union,  if  they 
discouraged  alliances  on  the  mere  ground  of  one  of  the  parties 
being  without  fortune. 

The  most  eminent  medical  men  in  Boston  make,  I  am  told, 
about  9500  dollars  (2000/.)  a  year,  and  their  early  career  is  one 
of  hard  striving  and  small  profits.  The  incomes  made  by  the 
first  lawyers  are  much  more  considerable,  and  I  hear  that,  when 
a  leading  practitioner  was  invited  to  transfer  his  business  from 
Boston  to  New  York,  because  he  might  be  employed  there  by  a 
population  of  400,000  souls,  he  declined,  saying,  that  his  clients 
were  drawn  from  a  population  nearly  equal  in  numbers  and  ave 
rage  wealth,  although  not  a  fourth  part  of  them  were  resident  in 
the  city  of  Boston. 

Bankruptcies  are  rarer  than  in  any  other  mercantile  community 
in  the  Union  of  equal  extent,  and,  when  they  do  occur,  larger 
dividends  are  paid  to  the  creditor.  As  most  of  the  rich  private 
citizens  live  within  their  income,  so  the  State  is  frugal,  and  al 
though  its  credit  stands  so  high  that  it  could  borrow  largely,  it 


128  PROTECTIONIST  DOCTRINES.  [CHAP.  IX 

has  contracted  very  little  debt,  it  being  thought  advisable  to 
leave  the  execution  of  almost  every  kind  of  public  work  to  pri 
vate  enterprise  and  capital. 

In  many  of  the  southern  and  western  states,  the  commercial 
policy  of  Massachusetts  was  represented  to  me  as  eminently 
selfish,  the  great  capitalists  wishing  to  monopolize  the  manufac 
turing  trade,  and  by  a  high  tariff  to  exclude  foreign  capitalists, 
so  as  to  grow  rich  at  the  expense  of  other  parts  of  the  Union. 
In  conversing  with  the  New  Englanders,  I  became  satisfied  that, 
in  spite  of  the  writings  of  the  first  political  economists  in  Europe 
and  America,  and  the  opinion  of  Channing,  and  some  other  of 
their  own  distinguished  men  (not  excepting  Daniel  Webster  him 
self  in  the  early  part  of  his  career),  they  have  persuaded  them 
selves  that  the  doctrines  of  free  trade  are  not  applicable  to  the 
present  state  of  their  country.  The  facility  with  which  every 
people  conscientiously  accommodate  their  speculative  opinions  to 
their  local  and  individual  interests,  is  sufficiently  demonstrated 
by  the  fact,  that  each  of  the  other  states,  and  sections  of  states, 
as  they  successively  embark  in  the  manufacture,  whether  of  cot 
ton,  iron,  or  other  articles,  become  immediately  converts  to  pro 
tectionist  views,  against  which  they  had  previously  declaimed. 

There  is  a  general  feeling  of  self-respect  pervading  all  classes 
in  the  New  England  states,  which  enables  those  who  rise  in  the 
world,  whether  in  political  life,  or  by  suddenly  making  large  for 
tunes  in  trade,  if  they  have  true  gentility  of  feeling,  to  take  their 
place  in  good  society  easily  and  naturally.  Their  power  of  ac 
commodating  themselves  to  their  new  position  is  greatly  facilitated 
by  the  instruction  imparted  in  the  free  schools  to  all,  however 
humble  in  station,  so  that  they  are  rarely  in  danger  of  betraying 
their  low  origin  by  ungrammatical  phrases  and  faulty  pronun 
ciation. 

English  critics  are  in  the  habit  of  making  no  allowance  for 
the  slightest  variations  in  language,  pronunciation,  or  manners, 
in  any  people  descended  from  the  Anglican  stock.  In  the  Ger 
mans  or  French  they  may  think  a  deviation  from  the  British 
standard  odd  or  ridiculous,  but  in  an  American  they  set  it  down 
at  once  as  vulgar ;  whereas  it  may  be  one  of  those  conventional- 


CHAP.  IX.]  PECULIARITIES  OF  LANGUAGE.  129 

isms,  respecting  which  every  nation  has  a  right  to  enforce  its  own. 
arbitrary  rules.  The  frequent  use  of  the  words,  "  sir"  and 
"  ma'am,"  in  the  United  States,  like  "  oui,  monsieur,  oui,  ma- 
dame,"  in  France,  for  the  sake  of  softening  the  bald  and  abrupt 
"  yes"  or  "no,"  would  sound  to  a  Frenchman  or  Italian  more 
polite  ;  and  if  the  Americans  were  to  conform  to  the  present 
English  model  in  such  trifles,  it  might  happen  that  in  England 
itself  the  fashion  may  soon  change.  There  are  also  many  gen 
uine  old  classical  phrases,  which  have  grown  obsolete  in  the 
parent  country,  and  which  the  Americans  retain,  and  ought  not 
to  allow  themselves  to  be  laughed  out  of.  The  title  of  Madam 
is  sometimes  given  here,  and  generally  in  Charleston  (S.  Carolina), 
and  in  the  South,  to  a  mother  whose  son  has  married,  and  the 
daughter-in-law  is  then  called  Mrs.  By  this  means  they  avoid 
the  inelegant  phraseology  of  old  Mrs.  A.,  or  the  Scotch,  Mrs.  A. 
senior.  Madam,  in  short,  very  commonly  serves  as  the  equiva 
lent  of  dowager,  as  used  in  English  titled  families.  There  are 
also  some  antique  provincialisms  handed  down  from  the  times  of 
the  first  settlers,  which  may  -well  deserve  to  be  kept  up,  although 
they  may  be  subjects  of  diversion  to  English  tourists.  In  one 
of  Shirley's  plays,  written  just  before  the  middle  of  the  seven 
teenth  century,  when  the  largest  emigration  took  place  from  Old 
to  New  England,  we  find  the  term,  "  I  guess,"  for  "I  think,"  or 
"  I  suppose,"  occurring  frequently  ;  and  if  we  look  farther  back, 
it  is.  met  with  in  the  "  Miller's  Tale"  and  in  the  "  Monk"  of 
Chaucer  : — 

..."  For  little  heaviness 
Is  right  enough  for  rauchel  folk,  I  guess." 

And  in  Spenser's  "  Faerie  Queene" — 

"It  seemed  a  second  Paradise,  I  guesse."* 

Among  the  most  common  singularities  of  expression  are  the 
following  : — "  I  should  admire  to  see  him"  for  "I  should  like  to 
see  him  ;"  "I  want  to  know,"  and  "  Do  tell,"  both  exclamations 
of  surprise,  answering  to  our  "  Dear  me."  These  last,  how 
ever,  are  rarely  heard  in  society  above  the  middling  class.  Ocea- 

*  Canto  x.  23. 
F* 


130  LITERARY  TASTES.  [CHAP.  IX. 

sionally  I  was  as  much  puzzled  as  if  I  was  reading  Tarn  o'Shanter, 
as,  for  example,  "  out  of  kittel"  means  "  out  of  order."  The  word 
"  sick"  is  used  in  New  England  in  the  same  sense  as  it  was  in 
the  time  of  Shakspeare,  or  when  the  liturgy  of  the  Church  of 
England  was  composed.  The  word  "  ill,"  which  in  Great 
Britain  means  "not  well,"  signifies  in  America  "very  ill." 
They  often  speak  here  of  a  "  lovely  man,"  using  the  adjective  in 
a  moral  sense  ;  and  say  of  a  plain,  shriveled  old  woman,  that 
she  is  "  a  fine  and  lovely  woman,"  meaning  that  her  character 
and  disposition  are  amiable.  "  Clever"  is  applied  to  a  good- 
natured  and  good-hearted  person  who  is  without  talent  and 
quickness.  At  first  we  had  many  a  good  laugh  when  we  dis 
covered  that  we  had  been  at  cross  purposes,  on  comparing  notes 
as  to  our  opinions  of  English  and  American  friends.  On  one 
occasion  I  admitted  that  Mrs.  A.  might  be  "  a  fine  and  lovely 
woman,"  but  it  could  only  be  said  of  her  by  candlelight. 

In  the  literary  circles  here  we  meet  with  several  writers  who 
are  keeping  up  an  active  correspondence  with  distinguished  men 
in  all  parts  of  Europe,  but  especially  with  English  authors. 

We  are  often  amused  to  observe  how  much  the  conversation 
turns  on  what  is  going  on  in  London.  One  day  I  was  asked 
whether  it  were  true  that  the  committee  for  deciding  on  the 
statues  to  be  set  up  in  the  new  House  of  Lords,  had  voted  in 
favor  of  Richardson,  before  they  could  make  up  their  minds 
whether  they  should  honor  Pope,  Dryderi,  Swift,  and  Fielding; 
and  whether  Milton  was  at  first  black-balled,  and  how  they  could 
possibly  be  disputing  about  the  rival  claims  of  Hume  and  Robert 
son  as  historians,  while  a  greater  than  either  of  them,  Gibbon, 
was  left  out  of  the  question.  They  suggested  that  a  tribunal  of 
literary  Jews  might  soon  be  required  to  pronounce  fairly  on  the 
merits  of  Christian  writers.  "  Do  your  countrymen,"  said  one 
of  my  friends  to  me,  "mean  to  imitate  the  spirit  of  the  king  of 
Bavaria,  who  excluded  Luther  from  his  Walhalla  because  he 
was  a  Protestant,  and  instead  of  Shakspeare  and  Newton  could 
endure  no  representatives  of  British  genius,  save  the  orthodox 
King  Alfred  and  Roger  Bacon  ?"  I  was  curious,  when  I  got 
home,  to  learn  how  much  of  this  gossip  about  things  in  the  old 


CHAP.  IX.]  COST  OF  LIVING.  131 

country  was  founded  on  correct  information,  and  was  relieved  to 
find  that  the  six  poets  ultimately  selected  were  Chaucer,  Spenser, 
Shakspeare,  Milton,  Dryden,  and  Pope  ;  a  result  which,  consid 
ering  that  a  single  black  ball  excluded,  did  credit  to  the  umpires, 
and  would,  I  am  sure,  be  approved  of  by  a  literary  jury  in 
Massachusetts.  I  was  also  glad  to  learn  that  in  Bavaria,  as 
soon  as  political  parties  changed,  a  royal  order  was  issued  to 
admit  the  bust  of  Luther  into  the  Walhalla. 

The  Americans,  in  general,  have  more  self-possession  and  self- 
confidence  than  Englishmen,  although  this  characteristic  belongs 
perhaps  less  to  the  Bostonians  than  to  the  citizens  of  most  of  the 
other  parts  of  the  Union.  On  the  other  hand,  the  members  of 
the  great  republic  are  sensitive  and  touchy  about  their  country, 
a  point  on  which  the  English  are  imperturbably  indifferent, 
being  proud  of  every  thing  British,  even  to  a  fault,  since  con 
tempt  for  the  opinion  of  other  nations  may  be  carried  so  far  as  to 
diminish  the  prospect  of  national  improvement.  It  might  be 
better  if  each  of  the  great  branches  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  family 
would  borrow  something  from  the  qualities  of  the  other, — if 
John  Bull  had  less  mauvais  honte,  so  as  to  care  less  for  what 
others  were  thinking  of  himself  individually,  and  if  Jonathan 
cared  less  for  what  others  are  thinking  of  his  country. 

The  expense  of  living  in  the  northern  states  is,  upon  the 
whole,  decidedly  more  reasonable  than  in  England,  although  the 
dress,  both  of  men  and  women,  is  somewhat  dearer.  In  Boston, 
also,  the  rent  of  houses  is  very  high,  but  not  so  in  the  country. 
Traveling  is  much  cheaper,  and  so  are  food,  newspapers,  and 
books.  On  comparing  the  average  price  of  bread  during  the  pre 
sent  year  with  that  in  England,  we  find  that  it  is  about  twenty- 
five  per  cent,  cheaper,  beef  and  mutton  ten  per  cent,  cheaper,  and 
the  price  of  poultry  extremely  moderate.  Why,  in  so  old  a  city 
as  Boston,  the  supply  of  seamstresses,  milliners,  and  dressmakers, 
should  be  as  inadequate  to  the  demand  as  in  some  of  our  newly- 
founded  colonies  when  most  progressive,  I  leave  to  political 
economists  to  explain.  My  wife  was  desirous  of  having  a  dress 
and  bonnet  made  up  in  a  week,  but  one  milliner  after  another 
declined  to  undertake  the  task.  It  would  be  a  useful  lesson  to 


132  ALARMS  OF  FIRE.  [CHAP.  IX 

those  who  are  accustomed  to  consider  themselves  as  patrons 
whenever  they  engage  others  to  do  work  for  them,  to  learn 
how  in  reality,  if  things  are  in  a  healthy  state,  the  obligation  is 
mutual ;  but  to  discover  that  the  usual  relations  of  the  employer 
and  employed  are  entirely  reversed,  and  that  the  favor  is  by  no 
means  conferred  by  the  purchaser,  would  try  the  patience  of  most 
travelers.  Friends  interceded,  but  in  vain  ;  till,  at  last,  a  repre 
sentation  was  made  to  one  of  these  important  personages,  that  my 
wife  was  about  to  leave  the  city  on  a  fixed  day,  and  that  being 
a  foreigner  she  ought,  out  of  courtesy,  to  be  assisted  ;  an  appeal 
which  was  successful,  and  the  work  was  then  undertaken  and 
sent  home  with  strict  punctuality,  neatly  made,  and  every  spare 
scrap  of  the  material  honestly  returned,  the  charge  being  about 
equal  to  that  of  the  first  London  dressmakers. 

We  remarked  in  some  of  the  country  towns  of  Massachusetts, 
where  the  income  of  the  family  was  very  moderate,  that  the 
young  ladies  indulged  in  extravagant  dressing — 40/.,  for  example, 
being  paid  for  a  shawl  in  one  instance.  Some  of  the  richer  class, 
who  had  returned  from  passing  a  year  or  two  in  Germany  and 
England,  had  been  much  struck  with  the  economical  habits,  in 
dress  and  in  the  luxuries  of  the  table,  of  persons  in  easy  circum 
stances  there,  and  the  example  had  not  been  lost  on  them. 

Oct.  2  8 . — Night  after  night  the  church  bells  have  been  tolling 
the  alarm  of  fire,  followed  by  the  rattling  of  the  heavy  engines 
under  the  windows  of  our  hotel.  When  I  last  resided  here 
(1842),  I  was  told  that  half  of  these  conflagrations  were  caused 
by  incendiaries,  partly  by  boys  for  the  mere  love  of  mischief;  but 
no  suspicions  of  this  kind  are  now  entertained.  Most  of  the 
buildings  are  of  wood,  and  it  is  hoped  that  the  increasing  use  of 
brick  in  the  private,  and  of  granite  in  the  public,  buildings  will 
lessen  the  evil.  The  combustibility  of  the  wood  of  the  white  or 
Weymouth  pine  {Pinus  strobusj,  largely  employed  in  houses 
here,  is  said  to  exceed  that  of  other  kinds  of  timber. 


CHAPTER  X. 

Boston. — Blind  Asylum  and  Laura  Bridgeman. — Respect  for  Freedom  of 
Conscience. — Cemetery  of  Mount  Auburn. — Channing's  Cenotaph. — 
Episcopal  Churches. — Unitarian  Congregations. — Eminent  Preachers. — 
Progress  of  Unitarians  why  slow. — Their  Works  reprinted  in  England. — 
Nothingarians. — Episcopalian  Asceticism. — Separation  of  Religion  and 
Politics. 

DURING  our  stay  at  Boston  we  visited  the  Perkins'  Institution,  or 
Asylum  for  the  Blind,  and  found  Laura  Bridgman,  the  girl  who 
has  been  blind,  deaf  and  dumb  from  infancy,  much  grown  since 
we  saw  her  four  years  ago.  She  is  now  sixteen,  and  looks  very 
intelligent.  She  was  reading  when  we  entered,  and  we  were 
told  that  formerly,  when  so  engaged  and  alone,  she  used  to  make 
with  one  hand  the  signs  of  all  the  words  which  she  felt  out  with 
the  other,  just  as  an  illiterate  beginner  speaks  aloud  each  sentence 
as  he  spells  it.  '  But  the  process  of  conveying  the  meaning  of  the 
words  to  her  mind  is  now  far  too  rapid  for  such  delay,  and  the 
hand  not  occupied  in  reading  remains  motionless.  We  were 
afterward  delighted  to  watch  her  while  she  was  following  the 
conversation  of  two  other  dumb  children  who  were  using  the 
modern  single-hand  alphabet.  She  was  able  to  comprehend  all 
the  ideas  they  were  exchanging,  and  to  overhear,  as  it  were, 
every  word  they  said,  by  making  her  fingers  play,  with  fairy 
lightness,  over  theirs,  with  so  slight  a  touch,  as  not  in  the  least 
degree  to  interfere  with  the  freedom  of  their  motions.  We  saw 
her  afterward  talk  with  Dr.  Howe,  with  great  rapidity  and 
animation,  pointing  out  accurately  the  places  on  a  map  while  he 
gave  a  lesson  in  geography.  She  indulged  her  curiosity  in  exam 
ining  my  wife's  dress,  and,  taking  her  hand,  told  her  which  was 
her  wedding  ring,  and  then  began  to  teach  her  the  deaf  and  dumb 
alphabet.  She  is  always  aware  whether  it  is  a  lady's  hand  she 
touches,  and.  is  shy  toward  a  stranger  of  the  other  sex.  As  she  is 
now  in  communication  with  no  less  than  a  hundred  acquaintances, 
she  has  grown  much  more  like  other  children  than  formerly. 


134  BLIND  ASYLUM.  [CHAP.  X. 

We  learnt  from  Dr.  Howe  that  the  task  of  carrying  on  her 
education  has  become  more  and  more  arduous,  for  she  is  naturally 
clever,  and  her  reflective  powers  have  unavoidably  ripened  much 
faster  than  the  perceptive  ;  so  that  at  an  age  when  other  children 
would  be  satisfied  to  accumulate  facts  by  the  use  of  their  eyes, 
her  chief  curiosity  is  directed  to  know  the  causes  of  things.  In 
reading  history,  for  example,  where  there  is  usually  a  continued 
description  of  wTars  and  battles,  she  must  be  told  the  motives  for 
which  men  slaughter  each  other,  and  is  so  distressed  at  their 
wickedness,  that  she  can  scarcely  be  induced  to  pursue  the 
study. 

To  be  able  to  appreciate  justly  the  judicious  treatment  of  those 
to  whose  training  she  owes  her  wonderful  progress,  it  would  be 
necessary  to  be  practically  acquainted  with  the  disappointments 
of  persons  who  undertake  to  teach  pupils  who  are  simply  blind, 
and  not  suffering,  like  Laura,  under  the  double  privation  of  the 
senses  of  sight  arid  hearing. 

Great  pains  had  been  taken  to  make  one  of  the  boys,  whom 
we  saw,  have  a  correct  idea  of  a  horse  ,  he  had  got  by  rote  a 
long  list  of  characteristics,  and  had  felt  the  animal,  and  the 
mortification  of  the  master  may  be  conceived  on  discovering  that 
after  all  the  child  could  not  be  sure  whether  the  creature  had 
three,  four,  or  five  legs.  After  a  few  days'  intercourse  with  the 
blind,  we  no  longer  marvel  that  precocious  children,  who  begin 
to  read  early  and  get  by  heart  and  recite  long  poems,  or  become 
knowing  by  keeping  company  with  grown-up  people,  are  so  often 
overtaken  or  left  behind  by  those  who  have  been  neglected,  and 
have  spent  their  time  at  play.  For  when  the  truants  are  sup 
posed  to  be  most  idle,  they  may,  in  reality,  be  storing  their  minds 
with  a  multitude  of  facts,  to  give  a  detailed  description  of  which 
to  a  student,  in  or  out  of  a  blind  asylum,  would  fill  volumes. 

Dr.  Howe  told  us  of  a  blind  Frenchman  in  the  establishment, 
who  could  guess  the  age  of  strangers,  by  hearing  their  voices, 
much  more  accurately  than  he  and  others  who  could  see  as  well 
as  talk  with  them. 

On  looking  over  the  annual  reports  of  the  trustees,  I  observed 
that  on  Sunday  the  pupils,  about  a  hundred  in  number,  and 


CHAP.  X.]  CEMETERY  OF  MOUNT  AUBURN.  135 

belonging  to  various  sects,  attend  public  worship  in  several 
different  churches,  they  themselves,  or  their  parents,  choosing 
some  particular  church.  "  Many  of  them,"  says  the  report, 
"attend  Sabbath  schools,  and,  as  care  is  taken  to  exclude  sect 
arian  doctrines  from  the  regular  course  of  instruction,  the  opinions 
of  the  pupils  respecting  doctrinal  matters  in  religion  are  formed 
upon  the  basis  prescribed  by  the  parents." 

The  assurance  here  given  to  the  public  is  characteristic  of  a 
settled  purpose,  every  where  displayed  by  the  New  Englanders, 
to  prevent  their  charitable  bequests,  as  well  as  their  great  educa 
tional  establishments,  from  becoming  instruments  of  proselytizing, 
or  serving  as  bribes,  to  tempt  parents,  pupils,  or  the  poor  to 
renounce  any  part  of  their  hereditary  creed  for  the  sake  of  world 
ly  advantages.  Such  conduct,  implying  great  delicacy  of  feeling 
in  matters  of  conscience,  and  a  profound  respect  for  the  sacredness 
of  religious  obligations,  is  worthy  of  the  descendants  of  men  who 
went  into  exile,  and  braved  the  wilderness  and  the  Indian  tom 
ahawk,  rather  than  conform  outwardly  to  creeds  and  rituals  of 
which  they  disapproved. 

Oct.  29. — Went  to  Cambridge  to  visit  the  cemetery  of  Mount 
Auburn,  where  a  large  extent  of  wild,  unreclaimed,  hilly  ground, 
covered  with  oak  and  pine,  has  been  inclosed  for  a  public  burial- 
place.  From  the  highest  eminence  there  is  a  fine  view  of  the 
surrounding  country.  Since  I  was  here  in  1842,  a  chapel  has 
been  erected  of  granite,  in  the  Gothic  style,  and  in  good  taste, 
with  painted  glass  from  Edinburgh  in  the  windows,  and  a  hand 
some  entrance  gate.  The  chapel  is  to  serve  as  a  Westminster 
Abbey,  Pantheon,  or  Walhalla,  to  contain  statues,  busts,  and 
monuments  of  distinguished  men.  A  cenotaph  has  been  placed 
in  the  grounds  in  honor  of  Dr.  Channing,  with  an  inscription 
written  by  a  friend,  in  a  plain,  unambitious  style,  such  as  Chan 
ning  himself  would  have  wished.  I  rejoiced  to  hear  that  as  his 
funeral  procession  was  passing  through  the  streets  of  Boston,  the 
bell  of  the  Roman  Catholic  chapel  was  tolled  among  the  rest, 
and  I  recollected  with  pleasure  the  conversations  I  had  had 
with  him  in  1841.  They  who  witness  the  impulse  given  by 
him  to  the  cause  of  popular  education,  the  increasing  liberality  of 


136  EPISCOPAL  CHURCHES.  [CHAP.  X 

sentiment  in  New  England  on  matters  of  religion,  and  the  great 
popularity  of  his  works,  might  desire  to  inscribe  on  his  tomb — 

"  E'en  in  his  ashes  live  their  wonted  fires." 

Some  of  the  Episcopal  churches  in  Boston  are  conducted  on 
the  high,  and  others  on  the  low  church  model ;  and  the  Tracta- 
rian  movement  has  had  the  effect  here,  as  in  England,  not  of 
establishing  uniformity  by  a  strict  adherence  to  one  rubric,  but 
of  producing  a  much  greater  variety  than  formerly  in  the  man 
ner  of  performing  public  worship.  If,  besides  striking  out  the 
Athanasian  Creed,  the  American  Episcopal  Church  had  omitted 
the  Nicene  Creed,  as  they  first  proposed  in  1785,  and  had  con 
densed  and  abridged  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  to  twenty,  measures 
from  which  they  were  dissuaded  by  the  English  hierarchy,  from 
whose  hands  their  first  bishops  required  consecration,  a  schism 
might  probably  have  taken  place  when  the  Tractarian  movement 
occurred,  and  they  might  have  separated  into  two  churches  far 
more  distinct  than  that  of  the  Drummondites  and  their  opponents, 
or  the  partisans  of  the  Scotch  and  English  rubric  north  of  the  Tweed. 

In  the  Stone,  or  King's  Chapel,  the  English  liturgy  is  used, 
with  such  omissions  and  alterations  as  are  required  to  suit  the 
opinions  of  Unitarians,  for  that  chapel  was  transferred  from  the 
Anglican  to  the  Unitarian  Church  by  the  conversion  of  the 
minister  and  majority  of  the  pew-holders.  But  in  almost  all  the 
other  Unitarian  churches,  the  service  resembles  in  form  that  of 
the  established  church  of  Scotland.  Before  my  £rst  visit  to 
Boston,  I  had  been  led  to  believe  that  the  majority  of  the 
citizens  were  Unitarians ;  whereas  I  found,  on  inquiry,  that 
although  they  may  exceed  in  number  any  other  single  sect,  and 
comprise  not  a  few  of  the  richest  citizens,  they  do  not  constitute 
above  one-fifth  of  the  whole  population,  and  scarcely  more  than 
a  tenth  in  Massachusetts  generally.  There  is,  however,  another 
sect,  calling  themselves  Christians  (pronounced  Christians),  pre 
vailing  largely  in  New  England,  which  denies  the  doctrine  of 
the  Trinity,  and  I  am  told  that  many  who  worship  in  other 
"  orthodox"  congregations  are  heterodox  on  this  point,  although 
they  do  not  choose  to  become  separatists.  One  of  them  observed 


CHAP.  X.]  UNITARIAN  CONGREGATIONS.  137 

to  me  that  he  thought  it  nearly  as  presumptuous  to  acquiesce  in. 
the  negative  as  in  the  affirmative  of  the  propositions  laid  down 
on  this  subject  in  the  Athanasian  Creed.  "  We  are,"  he  said, 
"  like  children  born  blind,  disputing  about  colors." 

The  prominent  position  occupied  by  the  Unitarians  arises,  not 
from  their  number,  nor  their  wealth,  however  considerable  this 
may  be,  but  from  their  talent,  earnestness,  and  knowledge. 
Many  of  the  leading  minds  in  the  Union  belong  to  this  sect,  and 
among  them,  Channing,  Sparks,  Dewey,  and  other  well-known 
authors,  have  been  converts  from  the  Congregationalists. 

To  have  no  creed,  no  standard  to  rally  round,  no  fixed  canons 
of  interpretation  of  Scripture,  is  said  to  be  fatal  to  their  progress. 
Yet  one  of  their  body  remarked  to  me  that  they  might  be  well 
satisfied  that  they  were  gaining  ground,  when  it  could  be  said 
that  in  the  last  thirty  years  (since  1815)  the  number  of  their 
ministers  had  increased  in  a  tenfold  ratio,  or  from  fifty  to  five 
hundred,  whereas  the  population  had  only  doubled  in  twenty-five 
years.  He  also  reminded  me  that  their  ranks  are  scarcely  ever 
recruited  from  foreign  emigrants,  from  whom  the  Romanists, 
Presbyterians,  Methodists,  Baptists,  and  Episcopalians  annually 
draw  large  accessions.  A  more  kindly  feeling  has  of  late  years 
sprung  up  between  the  Unitarians  and  Congregationalists,  because 
some  of  the  most  eminent  writers  of  both  sects  have  joined  in 
defending  themselves  against  a  common  adversary,  namely,  those 
rationalists  who  go  so  far  as  to  deny  the  historical  evidence  of  the 
miracles  related  in  the  New  Testament,  and  who,  in  some  other 
points,  depart  more  widely  from  the  Unitarian  standard,  than 
does  the  latter  from  that  of  Rome  itself.  Norton,  author  of 
"  The  Genuineness  of  the  Gospels"  may  be  mentioned,  as  one 
of  the  celebrated  Unitarian  divines  who  has  extorted  from  the 
more  liberal  members  of  all  "  orthodox"  denominations  the  praise 
of  being  a  defender  of  the  faith. 

In  the  course  of  my  two  visits  to  the  United  States,  I  enjoyed 
opportunities  of  hearing  sermons  preached  by  many  of  the  most 
eminent  Unitarians — among  them  were  Channing,  Henry  Ware, 
Dewey,  Bellows,  Putnam,  and  Gannet — and  was  much  struck, 
not  only  with  their  good  sense  and  erudition,  but  with  the  fervor 


138  EMINENT  PREACHERS— CHANNING'S  WORKS.     [CHAP.  X. 

of  their  eloquence.  I  had  been  given  to  understand  that  I 
should  find  a  want  of  warmth  in  their  discourses,  that  they  were 
too  cold  and  philosophical,  and  wanting  in  devotional  feeling  ; 
but,  on  the  contrary,  there  were  many  of  them  most  impressive, 
full  of  earnestness  and  zeal,  as  well  as  of  original  views  and 
instruction.  One  of  the  chief  characteristics  was  the  rare  allu 
sion  made  to  the  Old  Testament,  or  to  controverted  points  of 
doctrine,  or  to  the  mysteries  of  the  Christian  religion,  and  the 
frequency  with  which  they  dwelt  011  the  moral  precepts  and 
practical  lessons  of  the  Gospels,  especially  the  preaching  of 
Christ  himself.  Occasional  exhortations  to  the  faithful,  cheer 
fully  to  endure  obloquy  for  the  sake  of  truth,  and  to  pay  no  court 
to  popularity,  an  undue  craving  for  which  was,  they  said,  the 
bane  of  a  democracy,  convinced  me  how  much  the  idea  of  their 
standing  in  a  hostile  position  to  a  large  numerical  majority  of  the 
community  was  present  to  their  minds.  On  some  occasions, 
however,  reference  was  naturally  made  to  doctrinal  points,  par 
ticularly  to  the  humanity  of  Christ,  his  kindred  nature,  and  its 
distinctness  from  that  of  the  eternal,  omnipotent,  and  incorporeal 
Spirit  which  framed  the  universe ;  but  chiefly  on  occasions  when 
the  orator  was  desirous  of  awakening  in  the  hearts  of  his  hearers 
emotions  of  tenderness,  pity,  gratitude,  and  love,  by  dwelling  on 
the  bodily  sufferings  of  the  Redeemer  on  the  cross.  More  than 
once  have  I  seen  these  appeals  produce  so  deep  a  sensation,  as  to 
move  a  highly  educated  audience  to  tears  ;  and  I  came  away 
assured  that  they  who  imagine  this  form  of  Christianity  to  be 
essentially  cold,  lifeless,  and  incapable  of  reaching  the  heart,  or 
of  powerfully  influencing  the  conduct  of  men,  can  never  have 
enjoyed  opportunities  of  listening  to  their  most  gifted  preachers, 
or  had  a  large  personal  intercourse  with  the  members  of  the  sect. 
When  I  wished  to  purchase  a  copy  of  the  writings  of  Chan- 
ning  arid  of  Dewey  in  Boston,  I  was  told  that  I  could  obtain 
more  complete  and  cheaper  editions  in  London  than  in  the  Unit 
ed  States ;  a  proof,  not  only  how  much  they  are  read  in  England, 
but  that  the  pecuniary  interests  of  British  authors  are  not  the 
only  ones  which  suffer  by  the  want  of  an  international  copyright. 
On  inquiring  of  the  publishers  at  Boston,  as  to  the  extent  of  the 


CHAP.  X.]  NOTHINGARIANS.  139 

sale  of  Channing's  works  in  the  United  States,  I  was  informed 
that  several  of  them,  published  separately,  had  gone  through 
many  editions,  and  no  less  than  9000  copies  of  the  whole,  in  six 
volumes,  had  been  sold  already  (1845),  and  the  demand  for  them 
was  on  the  increase,  many  copies  having  been  recently  ordered 
from  distant  places  in  the  West,  such  as  St.  Louis  and  Chicago. 
A  reprint  of  the  same  edition  at  Glasgow,  has  circulated  widely 
in  England,  and  the  reading  of  it  in  America  is  by  no  means 
confined  to  Unitarians,  the  divines  of  other  denominations, 
especially  the  Calvinists,  being  desirous  to  know  what  has  been 
written  against  them  by  their  great  antagonist. 

Having  been  informed  by  one  of  my  friends  that  about  a  fifth 
of  all  the  New  Eriglanders  were  "  Nothingarians,"  I  tried,  but 
with  little  success,  to  discover  the  strict  meaning  of  the  term. 
Nothing  seems  more  vague  and  indefinite  than  the  mariner  of  its 
application.  I  fancied  at  first  that  it  might  signify  deists  or  in 
fidels,  or  persons  careless  about  any  religious  faith,  or  who  were 
not  church-goers  ;  but,  although  it  may  sometimes  signify  one  or 
all  of  these,  I  found  it  was  usually  quite  otherwise.  The  term 
latitudinarian,  used  in  a  good  sense,  appeared  most  commonly  to 
convey  the  meaning  ;  for  a  Nothingarian,  I  was  informed,  was 
indifferent  whether  he  attended  a  Baptist,  Methodist,  Presbyte 
rian,  or  Congregationalist  church,  and  was  often  equally  inclined 
to  contribute  money  liberally  to  any  one  or  all  of  them.  A  Meth 
odist  writer  of  some  eminence  remarked  to  me,  that  the  range  of 
doctrines  embraced  by  these  denominations,  was  not  greater,  if  so 
great,  as  that  which  comprehended  within  the  same  pale  a  high 
tractarian  and  a  low  churchman,  and  that  he  who  would  indiffer 
ently  subscribe  to  these  two  forms  of  Episcopalianism,  might  with 
equal  propriety  be  styled  a  Nothingarian.  In  other  cases  I  as~ 
certained  that  the  term  Nothingarian  was  simply  used  for  persons 
who,  though  they  attended  worship  regularly  in  some  church,  had 
never  been  communicants.  One  of  the  latter,  an  Episcopalian, 
once  said  to  me,  "  I  have  never  joined  any  church  ;"  and  then 
in  explanation  added,  "  it  would  be  hard  at  my  age  to  renounce 
society,  dancing,  and  public  amusements."  I  expostulated  soon 
afterward  with  an  Episcopalian  minister  in  Virginia,  observing- 


140  RELIGION  AND  POLITICS.  [CHAP.  X. 

that  such  ideas  of  austerity  and  asceticism  were  not  consistent 
with  the  spirit  of  the  Anglican  Church.  This  he  admitted,  but 
pleaded  the  absolute  necessity  of  extreme  strictness  to  enable  them 
to  efface  the  stigma  transmitted  to  them  from  colonial  times  ;  for 
in  the  Southern  states,  particularly  in  Virginia,  the  patronage  of 
the  mother  country,  in  filling  up  livings,  was  for  a  century  scan 
dalously  abused,  and  so  many  young  men  of  profligate  and  im 
moral  habits  were  sent  out,  as  to  create  a  strong  prejudice  against 
the  Established  Church  of  England  in  the  minds  of  the  more 
zealous  and  sincere  religionists. 

On  one  of  my  voyages  home  from  America,  an  officer  of  rank 
in  the  British  army  lamented  that  the  governor  of  one  of  our  col 
onies  had  lately  appointed  as  Attorney-General  one  who  was  an 
atheist.  T  told  him  I  knew  the  lawyer  in  question  to  be  a  zeal 
ous  Baptist.  "  Yes,"  he  replied,  "  Baptist,  Atheist,  or  something 
of  that  sort."  I  have  no  doubt  that  if  this  gallant  colonel  should 
visit  New  England,  his  estimate  of  the  proportion  of  Nothinga 
rians  in  the  population  would  be  very  liberal. 

Traveling  as  I  did  in  1845—6,  through  a  large  part  of  the 
Union,  immediately  after  the  close  of  the  protracted  contest  for 
the  Presidency,  when  the  votes  in  favor  of  Mr.  Clay  and  Mr. 
Polk  had  been  nearly  balanced,  I  was  surprised  to  find  in  the 
north,  south,  and  west,  how  few  of  the  Americans  with  whom  I 
conversed  as  traveling  companions,  could  tell  me  to  what  denom 
ination  of  Christians  these  two  gentlemen  belonged.  I  at  length 
ascertained  that  one  of  them  was  an  Episcopalian,  and  the  other 
a  Presbyterian.  This  ignorance  could  by  no  means  be  set  down 
to  indifFerentism.  Had  one  of  the  candidates  been  a  man  of  im 
moral  character,  it  would  have  materially  affected  his  chance  of 
success,  or  probably  if  he  had  been  suspected  of  indifference  about 
religion,  and  not  a  few  of  the  politicians  whom  I  questioned  were 
strongly  imbued  with  sectarian  feelings  ;  but  it  was  clear  that  in 
the  choice  of  a  first  magistrate  their  minds  had  been  wholly  oc 
cupied  with  other  considerations,  and  the  separation  of  religion 
and  politics,  though  far  from  being  as  complete  as  might  be 
wished,  is  certainly  one  of  the  healthy  features  of  the  working  of 
the  American  institutions 


CHAPTER   XI. 

Boston. — Whig  Caucus. — Speech  of  Mr.  Webster. — Politics  in  Massachu 
setts. — Election  of  Governor  and  Representatives. — Thanksgiving  Day 
and  Governor's  Proclamation. — Absence  of  Pauperism. — Irish  Repeal 
Meeting. — New  England  Sympathizer. — Visit  to  a  Free  School. — State 
Education. — Pay  and  Social  Rank  of  Teachers. — Importance  of  the  Pro 
fession. — Rapid  Progress  and  Effects  of  Educational  Movement. — Popu 
lar  Lectures. — Lending  Libraries. 

Nov.  10,  1845. — WENT  to  a  great  meeting  of  about  3500 
people  in  Faneuil  Hall,  where  they  were  discussing  the  election 
of  the  governor  and  executive  officers  of  the  State.  It  was  called 
a  Whig  caucus,  being  only  attended  by  persons  of  one  political 
party,  or  if  others  were  present,  they  were  there  only  by  courtesy, 
and  expected  to  be  silent,  and  not  interrupt  the  harmony  of  the 
proceedings.  When  I  entered,  I  found  Mr.  Daniel  Webster  on 
his  legs.  Since  the  arrival  of  the  last  mail  steamer  from  Liver 
pool  fears  had  been  entertained  that  the  pretensions  of  the  Cabi 
net  of  Washington  to  the  whole,  or  greater  part  of  Oregon,  must 
end  in  a  war  between  England  and  the  United  States.  This 
topic  was  therefore  naturally  uppermost  in  the  minds  of  a  peace- 
loving  and  commercial  community..  The  cautious  and  measured 
expressions  of  the  Whig  statesman  when  out  of  office,  and  his 
evident  sense  of  the  serious  responsibility  incurred  by  one  who 
should  involve  two  great  nations  in  war,  formed  a  striking  con 
trast  to  the  unguarded  tone  of  the  late  inaugural  address  of  the 
President  of  the  Union  on  the  same  subject.  I  was  amused  to 
hear  frequent  references  made  to  the  recent  debate  in  the  British 
House  of  Commons,  the  exact  words  of  Sir  Robert  Peel  and 
others  being  quoted  and  commented  upon,  just  as  if  the  discussion 
had  been  simply  adjourned  from  Westminster  to  Boston.  The 
orator  rebuked  the  blustering  tone  of  defiance,  in  which  dema 
gogues  and  newspapers  in  some  parts  of  the  Union  were  indulg 
ing  against  England.  He  then  condemned  the  new  constitution 


142  POLITICS  IN  MASSACHUSETTS.  [CHAP.  XI. 

of  Texas,  which  prohibits  the  Legislature  from  ever  setting  the 
bondman  free,  and  deprecated  the  diversion  made  from  the  ranks 
of  the  Whigs  by  the  Abolitionists,  who,  by  setting  up  a  candi 
date  of  their  own  for  the  Presidentship,  had  enabled  their  oppo 
nents  to  carry  a  man  pledged  to  the  annexation  of  Texas.  At 
the  same  time  he  gave  this  party  the  credit  of  being  as  conscien 
tious  as  they  were  impracticable.  He  then  alluded  to  another 
"  separate  organization,"  as  it  is  here  called,  namely,  that  of  the 
"  Native  Americans,"  which  had  in  like  manner  defeated  the 
object  they  had  in  view,  by  dividing  the  Whigs,  the  majority  of 
whom  agreed  in  thinking  the  present  naturalization  laws  very 
defective,  and  that  a  stop  should  be  put  to  fraudulent  voting. 
The  introduction  of  a  long  Latin  quotation  from  Cicero  showed 
that  the  speaker  reckoned  on  having  a  considerable  number  at 
least  of  well-educated  men  in  his  large  audience.  The  frequent 
mention  of  the  name  of  Governor  George  N.  Briggs,  the  initial 
letter  only  of  the  second  appellative  being  pronounced,  grated 
strangely  on  my  English  ear  ;  for  though  we  do  not  trouble  our 
selves  to  learn  all  the  Christian  names  of  our  best  actors,  as  Mr. 
T.  P.  Cooke  and  Miss  M.  Tree,  we  are  never  so  laconic  and 
unceremonious  in  dealing  with  eminent  public  men.  I  had  asked 
several  persons  what  K.  signified  in  the  name  of  the  President, 
James  K.  Polk,  before  T  ascertained  that  it  meant  Knox  ;  but, 
in  the  United  States,  it  might  have  no  other  signification  than 
the  letter  K.  ;  for,  when  first  in  Boston,  I  requested  a  friend  to 
tell  me  -what  B.  stood  for  in  his  name,  and  he  replied,  "  For 
nothing  ;  my  surname  was  so  common  a  one,  that  letters  ad 
dressed  to  me  were  often  mis-sent,  so  I  got  the  Post-Office  to 
allow  me  to  adopt  the  letter  B." 

I  came  away  from  this  and  other  public  meetings  convinced 
that  the  style  of  speaking  of  Mr.  Webster,  Mr.  Everett,  Mr.  Win- 
throp,  arid  some  others,  would  take  greatly  in  England,  both  in 
and  out  of  parliament.  It  was  also  satisfactory  to  reflect,  that 
in  Massachusetts,  where  the  whole  population  is  more  educated 
than  elsewhere,  arid  more  Anglo-American,  having  less  of  recent 
foreign  admixture,  whether  European  or  African,  the  dominant 
party  is  against  the  extension  of  slavery  to  new  regions  like  Texas, 


CHAP.  XL]  ELECTION.  143 

against  territorial  aggrandizement,  whether  in  the  north  or  south, 
and  against  war.  They  are  in  a  minority  it  is  true  :  but  each 
state  in  the  Union  has  such  a  separate  and  independent  position, 
that,  like  a  distinct  nation,  it  can  continue  to  cherish  its  own 
principles  and  institutions,  and  set  an  example  to  the  rest,  which 
they  may  in  time  learn  to  imitate.  The  Whigs  were  originally 
in  favor  of  more  centralization,  or  of  giving  increased  power  to 
the  federal  executive,  while  the  democratic  party  did  all  they 
could  to  weaken  the  central  power,  and  successfully  contended  for 
the  sovereign  rights  and  privileges  of  each  member  of  the  confed 
eration.  In  so  doing  they  have  perhaps  inadvertently,  and  with 
out  seeing  the  bearing  of  their  policy,  guarded  the  older  and  more 
advanced  commonwealths  from  being  too  much  controlled  and 
kept  down  by  the  ascendency  of  newer  and  ruder  states. 

A  few  days  later,  I  went  to  see  the  electors  give  their  votes. 
Perfect  order  and  good-humor  prevailed,  although  the  contest 
was  a  keen  one.  As  I  approached  the  poll,  the  agents  of  differ 
ent  committees,  supposing  that  I  might  be  an  elector,  put  into 
my  hands  printed  lists,  containing  the  names  of  all  the  candidates 
for  the  offices  of  Governor,  Lieutenant-governor,  five  senators, 
and  thirty-five  representatives.  Every  registered  voter  is  entitled 
to  put  one  of  these  "  tickets"  into  the  balloting  box.  The  real 
struggle  was  between  the  Whigs  and  Democrats,  the  former  of 
whom  carried  the  day  ;  but,  besides  their  tickets,  two  others  were 
presented  to  me,  one  called  the  Native  American,  and  the  other 
the  Working  Man's  ticket.  The  latter  had  for  its  emblem  a 
naked  arm,  wielding  a  hammer,  and  for  its  motto,  "  The  strong 
right  arm  of  labor."  The  five  senators  proposed  in  this  list, 
consisted  of  two  printers,  a  carpenter,  a  blacksmith,  and  a  sur 
veyor,  and  among  the  representatives  were  four  shoemakers,  one 
tailor,  eight  carpenters,  four  printers,  an  engineer,  &c. 

I  heard  Americans  regret,  that  besides  caucuses  there  are  no 
public  meetings  here  where  matters  are  debated  by  persons  of 
opposite  parties  and  opinions,  such  as  are  sometimes  held  in  En 
gland.  I  was  surprised  to  hear  that  such  experiments  were  of 
rare  occurrence  in  a  country  where  men  opposed  in  politics 
frequently  argue  with  so  much  good  temper,  and  where,  in  so 


144  THANKSGIVING  DAY.  [CHAP.  XI. 

many  hotels  and  taverns,  newspapers  of  all  shades  of  opinion  are 
taken  in  just  as  in  our  great  club-houses  in  London,  affording 
opportunities  of  knowing  what  can  be  said  on  all  sides  of  every 
question.  I  have  since  learnt  from  correspondents,  that,  in  a 
period  of  political  excitement,  the  people  in  many  parts  of  Massa 
chusetts  have  begun  to  engage  different  lecturers  to  explain  to 
them  the  opposite  facts,  views,  and  arguments  adduced  for  and 
against  the  chief  subjects  under  discussion. 

Nov.  27. — This  day,  Thanksgiving  Day,  and  the  4th  of  July, 
Independence  Day,  are  the  only  two  holidays  in  the  American 
calendar.  The  Governor  has,  they  say,  as  usual,  made  a  bad 
guess  in  regard  to  weather,  for  there  is  a  pelting  rain.  It  was 
indeed  ascertained  by  actual  measurement  at  Cambridge,  that  in 
nineteen  hours  between  yesterday  evening  and  to-day,  at  four 
o'clock,  there  has  fallen  no  less  than  four  and  a  half  inches  of 
rain,  or  one-eighth  part  of  the  average  of  the  whole  year,  which 
amounts  to  thirty-six  inches  at  Boston.  By  this  unlucky  accident 
many  a  family  gathering  has  been  interrupted,  and  relatives  have 
been  unable  to  come  in  from  the  country  to  join  a  merry  meeting, 
corresponding  to  that  of  an  English  Christmas  Day.  Many  a 
sermon,  also,  carefully  prepared  for  the  occasion,  has  been  preached 
to  empty  pews  ;  but  the  newspapers  inform  us,  that  some  of 
these  effusions  will  be  repeated  on  Sunday  next.  Sixteen  states 
have  now  adopted  this  New  England  custom  of  appointing  a  day 
for  thanksgiving,  and  it  is  spreading  fast,  having  already  reached 
South  Carolina,  and  even  Louisiana.  A  month  before,  I  had 
heard  with  interest  the  Governor's  proclamation,  read  in  all  the 
churches,  full  of  good  feeling  and  good  sense.  He  called  on  the 
people  of  the  state,  now  that  the  harvest  was  gathered  in,  to 
praise  the  God  of  Heaven  for  his  bounties,  and  in  their  cheerful 
family  circles  to  render  to  Him  a  tribute  of  thanksgiving  for  His 
goodness  : — 

"  Let  us  praise  Him,  that,  under  His  protecting  Providence,  the  institu 
tions  of  state,  of  religion,  of  learning  and  education,  established  by  the 
prudence  and  wisdom  of  our  fathers,  under  which  their  children  have  been 
prosperous  and  happy,  have  come  down  to  us  unimpaired  and  in  full 
vigor  : 

"  That  the  various  classes  of  our  citizens,  under  the  mild  and  equal 


CHAP.  XL]  ABSENCE  OF  PAUPERISM.  145 

government  of  laws  made  by  themselves,   pursue,   unmolested,  upon  the 
land  and  upon  the  sea,  their  peaceful  occupations  : 

"  That  although  we  have  heard  the  distant  rumor,  and  seen  the  prepar 
ations  for  war  our  common  country  is  yet  at  peace  with  the  world." 

In  no  part  of  the  address  was  any  claim  set  up  to  the  peculiar 
favor  of  God,  or  his  special  intervention  in  chastising  the  nation 
for  particular  transgressions  ;  nothing  to  imply  that  He  does  not 
govern  the  world  by  fixed  and  general  laws,  moral  and  physical, 
which  it  is  our  duty  to  study  and  obey,  and  which,  if  we  disobey, 
whether  from  ignorance  or  willfulness,  will  often  be  made  the 
instruments  of  our  punishment  even  in  this  world.  The  procla 
mation  concluded  thus,  in  the  good  old  style  : 

£:  Given  at  the  Council  Chamber,  in  Boston,  this  1st  day  of  October,  in  the 
year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  forty-five,  and  of  the 
Independence  of  the  United  States  the  seventieth. 

"  GEORGE  N.  BRIGGS. 

"By  his  Excellency  the  Governor,  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the 
Council-  "  JOHN  G.  PALFREY,  Secretary. 

"  God  save  the  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts." 

The  almost  entire  absence  of  pauperism  even  in  the  large 
towns,  except  among  the  old  and  infirm,  forms  a  striking  point  of 
contrast  between,  the  state  of  things  in  New  England  and  in 
Europe.  One  of  my  friends,  who  is  serving  on  a  committee  in 
Boston  to  see  that  the  poor  who  are  too  old  to  work  have  all 
necessary  comforts,  has  just  ordered,  as  one  of  the  indispensables, 
a  carpet  for  the  bed-side  of  an  old  woman.  Yet,  within  five 
miles  of  Boston,  some  of  the  newly  arrived  emigrants  of  the  lower 
class  of  Irish,  may  now  be  seen  living  in  mud  huts  by  the  side 
of  railway  cuttings,  which  they  are  employed  to  dig,  who  are 
regarded  by  many  of  the  native-born  laborers  with  no  small  dis 
gust,  not  only  as  the  most  ignorant  and  superstitious  of  mortals, 
but  as  likely,  by  their  competition,  to  bring  down  the  general 
standard  of  wages.  The  rich  capitalists,  on  the  other  hand, 
confess  to  me,  that  they  know  not  how  they  could  get  on  with 
the  construction  of  public  works,  and  obtain  good  interest  for  their 
money,  were  they  deprived  of  this  constant  influx  of  foreign  labo  . 
VOL.  i. — G 


146  IRISH  REPEAL  MEETING.  [CHAP.  XI. 

They  speak  also  with  kindness  of  the  Irish,  saying  they  are 
most  willing  to  work  hard,  keep  their  temperance  vows,  and,  in 
spite  of  the  considerable  sums  drawn  from  them  by  the  Catholic 
priests,  are  putting  by  largely  out  of  their  earnings  into  the 
Savings  Banks.  It  is  also  agreed  that  they  are  most  generous  to 
their  poor  relations  in  Ireland,  remitting  money  to  them  annually, 
and  sometimes  enough  to  enable  them  to  pay  their  passage  across 
the  Atlantic.  At  the  same  time  they  confess,  with  much  con 
cern,  that  the  efforts  now  making  by  the  people  at  large,  aided 
by  the  wealthiest  class,  to  establish  a  good  system  of  state 
instruction,  and  to  raise  the  moral  and  intellectual  character  of 
the  millions,  must  be  retarded  by  the  intrusion  of  so  many  rude 
and  ignorant  settlers.  Among  other  mischiefs,  the  political 
passions  and  party  feelings  of  a  foreign  country  are  intruded  into 
the  political  arena,  and  a  tempting  field  laid  open  to  demagogues 
of  the  lowest  order. 

Returning  home  one  night  after  dark  from  a  party,  I  heard 
music  in  a  large  public  building,  and,  being  told  it  was  a  repeal 
meeting  held  by  the  Irish,  had  the  curiosity  to  look  in.  After  a 
piece  of  instrumental  music  had  been  performed,  an  orator,  with 
an  Irish  accent,  addressed  the  crowd  on  the  sufferings  of  the 
Irish  people  precisely  as  if  he  had  forgotten  on  which  side  of  the 
Atlantic  he  then  was.  He  dwelt  on  the  tyranny  of  the  Saxons, 
and  spoke  of  repeal  as  the  only  means  of  emancipating  their 
country  from  British  domination,  and  solicited  money  in  aid  of 
the  great  cause.  Seeing,  with  no  small  surprise,  an  industrious 
native-born  artisan  of  Boston,  whom  I  knew,  in  the  crowd,  I 
asked  him,  as  we  went  out  together,  whether  he  approved  of  the 
objects  of  the  meeting.  He  belonged  to  the  extreme  democratic 
party,  and  answered,  very  coolly  and  quite  seriously,  "  We  hope 
that  we  may  one  day  be  able  to  do  for  Ireland  what  France  did 
for  the  United  States  in  our  great  struggle  for  independence." 

On  my  return  home,  I  found  that  my  pocket  had  been  picked 
of  a  purse  containing  fortunately  a  few  dollars  only,  an  accident 
for  which  I  got  no  commiseration,  as  my  friends  hoped  it  would 
be  a  lesson  to  me  to  keep  better  company  in  future. 

That  a  humble  mechanic   of  Boston  should  be  found  who 


CHAP.  XL]  VISIT  TO  A  FREE  SCHOOL.  147 

indulged  in  wild  projects  for  redressing  the  wrongs  of  the  Hiber 
nian  race,  ought  not  to  create  wonder,  when  I  state  that  before 
the  end  of  the  year  1845,  a  resolution  was  moved  in  Congress, 
by  Mr.  M'Connell,  one  of  the  members  for  Alabama,  after  he 
had  been  talking  much  about  the  spirit  of  Christian  love  and 
peaceful  brotherhood  which  distinguished  the  American  republic, 
to  the  following  effect : — "  That  the  Irish,  ground  down  by 
British  misrule,  have  for  centuries  groaned  under  a  foreign 
monarchical  yoke,  and  are  now  entitled  to  share  the  blessings  of 
our  free  institutions."  I  am  happy  to  say,  however,  that  this 
absurd  motion  was  not  even  seconded. 

The  population  of  Boston,  exclusive  of  Charlestown,  Roxbury, 
and  Cambridge  (which  may  be  regarded  as  suburbs),  is  at  present 
about  115,000,  of  which  8000  are  Roman  Catholics,  chiefly  of 
Irish  extraction  ;  but  there  are  besides  many  Scotch  and  English 
emigrants  in  the  city.  In  order  to  prove  to  me  how  much  may 
be  done  to  advance  them  in  civilization  in  a  single  generation,  I 
was  taken  to  a  school  where  nine-tenths  of  all  the  children  were 
of  parents  who  had  come  out  from  England  or  Ireland.  It  was 
not  an  examination  day,  and  our  visit  was  wholly  unexpected. 
We  entered  a  suite  of  three  well-aired  rooms,  containing  550 
girls.  There  were  nine  teachers  in  the  room.  The  pupils  were 
all  between  the  ages  of  nine  and  thirteen,  the  greater  portion  of 
them  the  daughters  of  poor  laborers,  but  some  of  them  of  parents 
in  good  circumstances.  Each  scholar  was  seated  on  a  separate 
chair  with  a  back  to  it,  the  chair  being  immovably  fixed  to  the 
ground  to  prevent  noise.  There  was  no  uniformity  of  costume, 
but  evidently  much  attention  to  personal  neatness,  nearly  all  of 
them  more  dressed  than  would  be  thought  in  good  taste  in  chil 
dren  of  a  corresponding  class  in  England.  They  had  begun  their 
studies  at  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  are  to  be  six  hours  at 
school,  studying  fifty  minutes  at  a  time,  and  then  being  allowed 
ten  minutes  for  play  in  a  yard  adjoining.  I  observed  some  of  the 
girls  very  intent  on  their  task,  leaning  on  their  elbows  and  in 
other  careless  attitudes,  and  we  were  told  by  the  masters  that 
they  avoid  as  much  as  possible  finding  fault  with  them  on  minor 
points  when  they  are  studying.  The  only  punishments  are  a 


143  STATE  EDUCATION.  [CHAP.  XL 

reprimand  before  the  class,  and  keeping  them  back  after  school 
hours.  The  look  of  intelligence  in  the  countenances  of  the  greater 
number  of  them  was  a  most  pleasing  sight.  In  one  of  the  upper 
classes  they  were  reading,  when  we  went  in,  a  passage  from  Paley 
"  On  Sleep,"  and  I  was  asked  to  select  at  random  from  the  school- 
books  some  poem  which  the  girls  might  read  each  in  their  turn. 
I  chose  Gray's  Elegy  in  a  Churchyard,  as  being  none  of  the 
simplest  for  young  persons  to  understand.  They  each  read  a 
verse  distinctly,  and  many  of  them  most  gracefully,  and  explained 
correctly  the  meaning  of  nearly  all  the  words  and  allusions  on 
which  I  questioned  them. 

We  afterward  heard  the  girls  of  the  arithmetic  class  examined 
in  algebra,  and  their  answers  showed  that  much  pains  had  been 
taken  to  make  them  comprehend  the  principles  on  which  the 
methods  of  calculation  depended.  We  then  visited  a  boy's  gram 
mar  school,  and  found  there  420  Protestant  and  100  Catholic 
boys  educated  together.  We  remarked  that  they  had  a  less  re 
fined  appearance  and  were  less  forward  in  their  education  than 
the  girls  whom  we  had  just  seen,  of  the  same  age,  and  taken 
from  the  same  class  in  society.  In  explanation  I  was  told  that 
it  is  impossible  to  give  the  boys  as  much  schooling,  because  they 
can  earn  money  for  their  parents  at  an  earlier  age. 

The  number  of  public  or  free  schools  in  Massachusetts  in 
1845-6,  for  a  population  of  800,000  souls,  was  about  3500, 
and  the  number  of  male  teachers  2585,  and  of  female  5000, 
which  would  allow  a  teacher  for  each  twenty-five  or  thirty  chil 
dren,  as  many  as  they  can  well  attend  to.  The  sum  raised  by 
direct  taxation  for  the  wages  and  board  of  the  tutors,  and  for 
fuel  for  the  schools,  is  upward  of  600,000  dollars,  or  120,000 
guineas  ;  but  this  is  exclusive  of  all  expenditure  for  school-houses, 
libraries,  and  apparatus,  for  which  other  funds  are  appropriated, 
and  every  year  a  great  number  of  newer  and  finer  buildings  are 
erected. 

Upon  the  whole  about  one  million  of  dollars  is  spent  in  teach 
ing  a  population  of  800,000  souls,  independently  of  the  sums 
expended  on  private  instruction,  which  in  the  city  of  Boston  is 
supposed  to  be  equal  to  the  money  levied  by  taxes  for  the  free 


CHAP.  XL]  PAY  OF  TEACHERS.  149 

schools,  or  260,000  dollars  (55,000/.).  If  we  were  to  enforce  a 
school-rate  in  Great  Britain,  bearing  the  same  proportion  to  our 
population  of  twenty-eight  millions,  the  tax  would  amount  annu 
ally  to  more  than  seven  millions  sterling,  and  would  then  be  far 
less  effective,  owing  to  the  higher  cost  of  living,  and  the  com 
parative  average  standard  of  incomes  among  professional  and 
official  men. 

In  Boston  the  master  of  the  Latin  School,  where  boys  are  fitted 
for  college,  and  the  master  of  the  High  School,  where  they  are 
taught  French,  mathematics,  and  other  branches  preparatory  to 
a  mercantile  career,  receive  each  2400  dollars  (500/.),  the  gov 
ernor  of  the  state  having  only  2500  dollars.  Their  assistants 
are  paid  from  1800  to  700  dollars  (37  Ql.  to  150Z.).  The 
masters  of  the  grammar  schools,  where  boys  and  girls  are  taught 
in  separate  school-houses  English  literature,  general  history,  and 
algebra,  have  salaries  of  1500  dollars  (315/.),  their  male  assist 
ants  600  (1251.),  and  their  female  300  (651.).  The  mistresses 
of  schools,  where  children  from  four  to  seven  years  old  are  taught 
to  read,  receive  325  dollars  (70/.).  In  Salem,  Roxbury,  Lowell, 
and  other  large  towns,  where  living  is  more  moderate,  the  salaries 
are  about  one-third  less  ;  and  in  rural  districts,  where  the  schools 
are  not  kept  open  for  the  whole  year,  the  wages  of  the  teachers 
are  still  smaller. 

The  county  of  Worcester,  Massachusetts,  for  example,  has  a 
population  of  about  100,000,  and  the  number  of  schools  in  it  is 
about  543,  the  schools  being  kept  open  some  four,  others  twelve 
months,  and  on  an  average  six  months  in  the  year.  The  male 
teachers,  of  whom  there  are  about  500,  receive  30  dollars  (61. 
6s.)  a  month  ;  the  women  teachers,  of  whom  there  are  700, 
about  13  dollars  a  month  (21.  15s.). 

Among  other  changes,  we  are  told,  in  the  State  Reports,  that 
the  number  of  female  teachers  has  been  augmented  more  rapidly 
than  that  of  the  males,  especially  in  schools  where  the  youngest 
pupils  are  taught,  because  the  services  of  women  cost  less,  and 
are  found  to  be  equally,  if  not  more,  efficient.  But  my  inform 
ants  in  general  were  desirous  that  I  should  understand  that  the 
success  of  their  plan  of  national  education  does  not  depend  so  much 


150  SOCIAL  POSITION  OF  TEACHERS.  [CHAP.  XT. 

on  the  number  and  pay  of  the  teachers  as  on  the  interest  taken 
in  it  by  the  entire  population,  who  faithfully  d  vote  more  time 
and  thought  to  the  management  of  the  schools  than  to  any  other 
public  duty. 

The  cost  of  living  in  New  England  may,  on  the  whole,  be 
taken  to  be  at  least  one-third  less  than  in  Great  Britain  ;  and 
the  spirit  of  the  political  institutions,  the  frugal  manner  of  conduct 
ing  the  government,  the  habits  of  society,  and  a  greater  general 
equality  of  fortunes,  where  the  custom  of  primogeniture  does  not 
prevail,  causes  the  relative  value  of  incomes  such  as  those  above 
enumerated,  to  confer  a  more  respectable  social  position  than 
they  would  do  with  us.  I  was  assured  that  in  the  country 
towns  the  schoolmasters  associate  with  the  upper  class  of  citizens, 
holding  as  good  a  place  in  society  as  the  clergy  and  medical 
men,  but  not  ranking  so  high  as  the  lawyers. 

On  this  point,  however  (the  relative  position  of  the  teachers), 
I  found  great  differences  of  opinion  among  my  informants  ;  but 
a  general  agreement  that  their  pay  and  social  rank  ought  to  be 
raised,  so  as  to  enable  the  state  to  command  the  services  of  men 
and  women  of  the  best  abilities  and  accomplishments. 

Channing  had,  for  many  years  before  his  death,  insisted  on 
the  want  of  institutions  to  teach  the  art  of  teaching.  There  are 
now  several  of  these  normal  schools  in  full  activity,  where  a  course 
of  three  years'  instruction  is  given.  As  yet,  however,  few  can 
afford  to  attend  more  than  one  year  ;  but  even  this  short  training- 
has  greatly  raised  the  general  standard  of  efficacy,  and  the  bene 
ficial  influence  has  extended  even  to  schoolmasters  who  have  not 
yet  availed  themselves  of  the  new  training.  The  people  have, 
in  fact,  responded  generously  to  the  eloquent  exhortations  of 
Channing,  not  to  economize,  for  the  sake  of  leaving  a  fortune  to 
the  rising  generation,  at  the  expense  of  starving  their  intellects 
and  impoverishing  their  hearts.  It  was  a  common  prejudice,  he 
said,  and  a  fatal  error  to  imagine  that  the  most  ordinary  abilities 
are  competent  to  the  office  of  teaching  the  young.  "  Their  voca 
tion,  on  the  contrary,  is  more  noble  even  than  that  of  the  states 
man,  arid  demands  higher  powers,  great  judgment,  and  a  capacity 
of  comprehending  the  laws  of  thought  arid  moral  action,  arid  the 


CHAP.  XL]  HIGH  OFFICE  OF  TEACHERS.  151 

various  springs  and  motives  by  which  the  child  may  be  roused  to 
the  most  vigorous  use  of  all  its  faculties."  ^ 

Nevertheless,  some  of  his  most  enthusiastic  admirers  confessed 
to  me  that  they  could  not  assent  to  his  doctrine,  that  "to  teach, 
whether  by  word  or  action,  is  the  highest  function  on  earth," 
unless  young  men  and  women,  between  the  ages  of  seventeen  and 
twenty-two,  are  the  pupils,  instead  of  children  between  four  and 
sixteen.  They  expressed  their  misgivings  and  fears  that  the 
business  of  the  schoolmaster,  who  is  to  teach  reading  and  writing 
and  the  elements  of  knowledge,  must  check  the  development  of 
the  mind,  if  not  tend  to  narrow  its  powers.  As  the  real  friends 
of  progress,  they  had  come  reluctantly  to  this  conclusion  ;  but 
they  admitted  that  to  despond  at  present  would  be  premature. 
The  experiment  of  promoting  the  teacher  of  every  school  to 
that  rank  in  society  which  the  importance  of  his  duties  entitles 
him  to  hold,  and  of  training  him  in  his  art,  has  never  yet  been 
tried. 

We  have  yet  to  learn  what  may  be  the  effect  of  encouraging 
men  of  superior  energy  and  talent,  who  have  a  natural  taste  for 
the  calling,  to  fit  themselves  for  the  profession.  It  must  doubt 
less  entail,  like,  every  other  liberal  calling,  such  as  the  legal, 
medical,  clerical,  military,  or  mercantile,  a  certain  amount  of 
drudgery  and  routine  of  business ;  but,  like  all  these  depart 
ments,  it  may  afford  a  field  for  the  enlargement  of  the  mind,  if 
they  who  exercise  it  enjoy,  in  a  like  degree,  access  to  the  best 
society,  can  exchange  thoughts  with  the  most  cultivated  minds 
in  their  district,  and  have  leisure  allowed  them  for  self-culture, 
together  with  a  reasonable  hope,  if  they  distinguish  themselves, 
of  being  promoted  to  posts  of  honor  and  emolument,  not  in  other 
professions,  such  as  the  clerical,  but  in  their  own.  The  high 
schools  of  Boston,  supported  by  the  state,  are  now  so  well  man 
aged,  that  some  of  my  friends,  who  would  grudge  no  expense  to 
engage  for  their  sons  the  best  instructors,  send  their  boys  to  them 
as  superior  to  any  of  the  private  establishments  supported  by  the 
rich  at  great  cost.  The  idea  has  been  recently  agitated  of  pro 
viding  similar  free-schools  and  colleges  for  girls,  because  they 
*  Glasgow  Ed.,  vol  i.  p.  391. 


152  EDUCATIONAL  MOVEMENT.  [CHAP.  XL 

could  more  easily  be  induced  to  stay  until  the  age  of  sixteen. 
Young  men,  it  is  said,  would  hate  nothing  so  much  as  to  find 
themselves  inferior  in  education  to  the  women  of  their  own  age 
and  station. 

Of  late  years  the  improvement  of  the  schools  has  been  so 
rapid,  that  objects  which  were  thought  Utopian  even  when 
Channing  began  his  career,  have  been  realized  ;  and  the  more 
sanguine  spirits,  among  whom  Mr.  Horace  Mann,  Secretary  of 
the  Public  Board  of  Education,  stands  pre-eminent,  continue  to 
set  before  the  eyes  of  the  public  an  ideal  standard  so  much  more 
elevated,  as  to  make  all  that  has  hitherto  been  accomplished 
appear  as  nothing.  The  taxes  self-imposed  by  the  people  for 
educational  purposes  are  still  annually  on  the  increase,  and  the 
beneficial  effects  of  the  system  are  very  perceptible.  In  all  the 
large  towns  Lyceums  have  been  established,  where  courses  of 
lectures  are  given  every  winter,  and  the  qualifications  of  the 
teachers  who  deliver  them  are  much  higher  than  formerly.  Both 
the  intellectual  and  social  feelings  of  every  class  are  cultivated 
by  these  evening  meetings,  and  it  is  acknowledged  that  with  the 
increased  taste  for  reading,  cherished  by  such  instruction,  habits 
of  greater  temperance  and  order,  and  higher  ideas  of  comfort, 
have  steadily  kept  pace. 

Eight  years  ago  (1838)  Channing  observed  that  "millions, 
wearied  by  their  day's  work,  have  been  chained  to  the  pages  of 
Walter  Scott,  and  have  owed  some  bright  evening  hours  and 
balmier  sleep  to  his  magical  creations  ;"  and  he  pointed  out  how 
many  of  the  laboring  classes  took  delight  in  history  and  biogra 
phy,  descriptions  of  nature,  in  travels  and  in  poetry,  as  well  as 
graver  works.  In  his  Franklin  Lecture,  addressed,  in  1838,  to 
a  large  body  of  mechanics  and  men  earning  their  livelihood  "  by 
manual  labor,"  he  says,  "  Books  are  the  true  levelers,  giving  to 
all  who  will  faithfully  use  them  the  society  and  spiritual  pres 
ence  of  the  best  and  greatest  of  our  race  ;  so  that  an  individual 
may  be  excluded  from  what  is  called  good  society,  and  yet  not 
pine  for  want  of  intellectual  companionship."* 

When  I  asked  how  it  happened  that  in  so  populous  and  rich 
*  Channing,  vol.  ii.  p.  378. 


CHAP.  XL]  POPULAR  LECTURES.  153 

a  city  as  Boston  there  was  at  present  (October,  1845)  no  regular 
theater,  I  was  told,  among  other  reasons,  that  if  I  went  into  the 
houses  of  persons  of  the  middle  and  even  humblest  class,  I  should 
often  find  the  father  of  a  family,  instead  of  seeking  excitement  in 
a  shilling  gallery,  reading  to  his  wife  and  four  or  five  children 
one  of  the  best  modern  novels,  which  he  has  purchased  for  twenty- 
five  cents  ;  whereas,  if  they  could  all  have  left  home,  he  could 
not  for  many  times  that  sum  have  taken  them  to  the  play.  They 
often  buy,  in  two  or  three  successive  numbers  of  a  penny  news 
paper,  entire  reprints  of  the  tales  of  Dickens,  Bulwer,  or  other 
popular  writers. 

Dana,  now  a  lawyer  in  Boston,  and  whose  acquaintance  I 
had  the  pleasure  of  making  there,  has,  in  his  singularly  interest 
ing  and  original  work,  entitled  "  Two  Years  before  the  Mast," 
not  only  disclosed  to  us  a  lively  picture  of  life  in  the  forecastle, 
but  has  shown  incidentally  how  much  a  crew,  composed  of  the 
most  unpromising  materials,  rough  and  illiterate,  and  recruited 
at  random  from  the  merchant  service  of  different  nations,  could 
be  improved  by  associating  with  a  single  well-educated  messmate. 
He  was  able,  on  one  of  the  few  holidays  which  were  granted  to 
them  in  California  by  the  most  tyrannical  of  captains,  to  keep 
them  from  going  ashore,  where  they  would  have  indulged  in  dis 
sipation,  by  reading  to  them  for  hours  Scott's  historical  tale  of 
"  Woodstock."  We  ought  scarcely,  then,  to  wonder,  after  what 
I  have  said  of  the  common  schools  of  this  city,  that  crowded 
audiences  should  be  drawn  night  after  night,  through  the  whole 
winter,  in  spite  of  frost  and  snow,  from  the  class  of  laborers  and 
mechanics,  mingled  with  those  of  higher  station,  to  listen  with 
deep  interest  to  lectures  on  natural  theology,  zoology,  geology, 
the  writings  of  Shakspeare,  the  beauties  of  "  Paradise  Lost," 
the  peculiar  excellencies  of  "  Comus"  and  "  Lycidas,"  treated  in 
an  elevated  style  by  men  who  would  be  heard  with  pleasure  by 
the  most  refined  audiences  in  London. 

Still,  however,  I  hear  many  complaints  that  there  is  a  want 
of  public  amusements  to  give  relief  to  the  minds  of  the  multitude, 
whose  daily  employments  are  so  monotonous  that  they  require, 
far  more  than  the  rich,  opportunities  of  innocent  recreation,  such 


154  LENDING  LIBRARIES.  tCHAP.  XI. 

as  concerts,  dancing,  and  the  theater  might  give,  under  proper 
regulations ;  for  these  are  now  usually  discouraged  by  religion 
ists,  who  can  find  no  other  substitute  for  them  but  sermons  and 
reiterated  church  services. 

Among  the  signs  of  the  times,  and  of  the  increasing  taste  for 
reading,  the  great  number  of  lending  libraries  in  every  district 
must  not  be  forgotten.  Toward  the  purchase  of  these  the  State 
grants  a  certain  sum,  if  an  equal  amount  be  subscribed  by  the 
inhabitants.  They  are  left  to  their  own  choice  in  the  purchase 
of  books  ;  and  the  best  English  poets  and  novelists  are  almost 
always  to  be  met  with  in  each  collection,  and  works  of  biography, 
history,  travels,  natural  history,  and  science.  The  selection  is 
carefully  made  with  reference  to  what  the  people  will  read,  and 
not  what  men  of  higher  education  and  station  think  they  ought 
to  read. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

Boston,  Popular  Education,  continued.  —  Patronage  of  Universities  and 
Science. — Channing  on  Milton. — Milton's  Scheme  of  teaching  the  Nat 
ural  Sciences.  —  New  England  Free  Schools.  —  Their  Origin.  —  First 
Puritan  Settlers  not  illiterate. — Sincerity  of  their  Religious  Faith. — 
Schools  founded  in  Seventeenth  Century  in  Massachusetts. — Discouraged 
in  Virginia. — Sir  W.  Berkeley's  Letter. — Pastor  Robinson's  Views  of 
Progress  in  Religion. — Organization  of  Congregational  Churches. — No 
Penalties  for  Dissent. — Provision  made  for  future  Variations  in  Creeds. 
— Mode  of  Working  exemplified. — Impossibility  of  concealing  Truths 
relating  to  Religion  from  an  educated  Population. — Gain  to  the  Higher 
Classes,  especially  the  Clergy. — New  Theological  Colleges. — The  Lower 
Orders  not  rendered  indolent,  discontented,  or  irreligious  by  Education. 
— Peculiar  Stimulus  to  Popular  Instruction  in  the  United  States. 

IT  was  naturally  to  be  apprehended  that,  in  a  pure  democracy, 
or  where  the  suffrage  is  nearly  universal,  the  patronage  of  the 
state  would  be  almost  entirely  confined  to  providing  means  for 
mere  primary  education,  such  as  reading,  writing-,  and  ciphering. 
But  such  is  not  the  case  in  Massachusetts,  although  the  annual 
grants  made  to  the  three  universities  of  Harvard,  Amherst,  and 
Williams,  are  now  becoming  inadequate  to  the  growing  wants 
of  a  more  advanced  community,  and  strenuous  exertions  are 
making  to  enlarge  them.  In  the  mean  time,  private  bequests 
and  donations  have  of  late  years  poured  in  upon  Harvard  Uni 
versity  from  year  to  year,  some  of  them  on  a  truly  munificent 
scale.  Since  my  first  visit  to  Cambridge,  professorships  of  bot 
any,  comparative  anatomy,  and  chemistry  have  been  founded. 
There  was  previously  a  considerable  staff  for  the  teaching  of 
literature,  law,  and  medicine  ;  and  lately  an  entire  new  depart 
ment  for  engineering,  natural  philosophy,  chemistry,  geology, 
mineralogy,  and  natural  history,  in  their  application  to  the  arts, 
has  been  instituted.  One  individual,  Mr.  Abbott  Lawrence,  a 
gentleman  still  in  the  prime  of  life,  has  contributed  no  less  a 
sum  than  100,000  dollars  '20,000  guineas)  toward  the  support 


156  PATRONAGE  OF  SCIENCE.  [CHAP.  XU. 

of  this  department.  One  of  the  new  chairs  is  now  filled  by  a 
zoologist  of  the  highest  European  reputation,  Professor  Agassiz. 
A  splendid  bequest  also,  of  equal  amount  (100,000  dollars),  has 
recently  been  made  to  the  Cambridge  Observatory,  for  which  the 
country  had  already  obtained,  at  great  cost,  a  large  telescope, 
which  has  resolved  the  great  nebula  in  Orion,  and  has  enabled 
the  astronomer,  Mr.  Bond,  simultaneously  with  an  English  ob 
server,  Mr.  Lassell,  to  discover  a  new  satellite  of  Saturn. 

That  the  State,  however,  will  not  be  checked  by  any  narrow 
utilitarian  views  in  its  patronage  of  the  university  and  the  higher 
departments  of  literature  and  science,  we  may  confidently  infer 
from  the  grants  made  so  long  ago  as  March,  1830,  by  the  frugal 
Legislature  of  Massachusetts,  for  a  trigonometrical  survey,  and 
for  geological,  botanical,  and  zoological  explorations  of  the  coun 
try,  executed  by  men  whose  published  reports  prove  them  to  have 
been  worthy  of  the  trust.  It  was  to  be  expected  that  some  dem 
agogues  would  attempt  to  persuade  the  people  that  such  an  ex 
penditure  of  public  money  was  profligate  in  the  extreme,  and  that 
as  the  universities  have  a  dangerous  aristocratic  tendency,  so  these 
liberal  appropriations  of  funds  for  scientific  objects  were  an  evi 
dence  that  the  Whig  party  were  willing  to  indulge  the  fancies 
of  the  few  at  the  charge  of  the  many.  Accordingly,  one  orator 
harangued  the  fishermen  of  Cape  Cod  on  this  topic,  saying  that 
the  government  had  paid  1500  dollars  out  of  the  Treasury  to 
remunerate  Dr.  Storer — for  what  ?  for  giving  Latin  names  to 
some  of  the  best  known  fish  ;  for  christening  the  common  cod 
Morrhua  americana,  the  shad  Alosa  vulgaris,  and  the  fall  her 
ring  Clupea  vulgaris.  His  electioneering  tactics  did  not  suc 
ceed  ;  but  might  they  not  have  gained  him  many  votes  in  certain 
English  constituencies?  Year  after  year,  subsequently  to  1837, 
the  columns  of  "  the  leading  journal"  of  Great  Britain  were  filled 
with  attacks  in  precisely  the  same  style  of  low  and  ignorant  ridi 
cule  against  the  British  Association,  and  the  memoirs  of  some  of 
the  ablest  writers  in  Europe  on  natural  history  and  science,  who 
were  assailed  with  vulgar  abuse.  Such  articles  would  not  have 
been  repeated  so  perseveringly,  nor  have  found  an  echo  in  the 
"  British  Critic"  and  several  magazines,  had  they  not  found  sym- 


CHAP.  XII.]  CIIANNING  ON  MILTON.  157 

pathy  in  the  minds  of  a  large  class  of  readers,  who  ought,  by  their 
station,  to  have  been  less  prejudiced,  and  who,  in  reality,  have 
no  bigoted  aversion  to  science  itself,  but  simply  dread  the  effects 
of  its  dissemination  among  the  peo*ple  at  large. 

It  is  remarkable  that  a  writer  of  such  genius  and  so  enlarged 
a  mind  as  Channing,  who  was  always  aiming  to  furnish  the  mul 
titude  with  sources  of  improvement  and  recreation,  should  have 
dwelt  so  little  on  the  important  part  which  natural  history  and 
the  physical  sciences  might  play,  if  once  the  tastes  of  the  million 
were  turned  to  their  study  and  cultivation.  From  several  passa 
ges  in  his  works,  it  is  evident  that  he  had  never  been  imbued 
writh  the  slightest  knowledge  or  feeling  for  such  pursuits  ;  and 
this  is  apparent  even  in  his  splendid  essay  on  Milton,  one  of  the 
most  profound,  brilliant,  and  philosophical  dissertations  in  the 
English  language.  Dr.  Johnson,  while  he  had  paid  a  just  hom 
age  to  the  transcendent  genius  of  the  great  poet  and  the  charms  of 
his  verse,  had  allowed  his  party  feelings  and  bigotry  to  blind  him 
to  all  that  was  pure  and  exalted  in  Milton's  character.  Chan 
ning,  in  his  vindication,  pointed  out  how  Johnson,  with  all  his 
strength  of  thought  and  reverence  for  virtue  and  religion,  his  vig 
orous  logic,  and  practical  wisdom,  wanted  enthusiasm  and  lofty 
sentiment.  Hence,  his  passions  engaged  him  in  the  unworthy 
task  of  obscuring  the  brighter  glory  of  one  of  the  best  and  most 
virtuous  of  men.  But  the  American  champion  of  the  illustrious 
bard  fails  to  remark  that  Milton  was  also  two  centuries  in  ad 
vance  of  the  age  in  which  he  lived,  in  his  appreciation  of  the 
share  which  the  study  of  nature  ought  to  hold  in  the  training  of 
the  youthful  mind.  Of  Milton's  scheme  for  enlarging  the  ordi 
nary  system  of  teaching,  proposed  after  he  had  himself  been  prac 
tically  engaged  in  the  task  as  a  schoolmaster,  the  lexicographer 
spoke,  as  might  have  been  anticipated,  in  terms  of  disparagement 
bordering  on  contempt.  He  treated  Milton,  in  fact,  as  a  mere 
empiric  and  visionary  projector,  observing  that  "  it  was  his  pur 
pose  to  teach  boys  something  more  solid  than  the  common  litera 
ture  of  schools,  by  reading  those  authors  that  treat  of  physical 
subjects." — "  The  poet  Cowley  had  formed  a  similar  plan  in  his 
imaginary  college  ;  but  the  knowledge  of  external  nature,  and  the 


158  DR.  JOHNSON.  [CHAP.  XII. 

sciences  which  that  knowledge  requires,  are  not  the  great  or  the 
frequent  business  of  the  human  mind  :  and  we  ought  not"  he 
adds,  "  to  turn  off  attention*  from  life  to  nature,  as  if  we  were 
placed  here  to  watch  the  growth  of  plants,  or  the  motions  of  the 
stars." 

That  a  violent  shock  had  been  given  in  the  sixteenth  century 
to  certain  time-honored  dogmas,  by  what  is  here  slightingly  called 
"  watching  the  motions  of  the  stars,"  was  an  historical  fact  with 
which  Johnson  was  of  course  familiar  ;  but  if  it  had  been  adduced 
to  prove  that  they  who  exercise  their  reasoning  powers,  in  inter 
preting  the  great  book  of  nature,  are  constantly  arriving  at  new 
truths,  and  occasionally  required  to  modify  preconceived  opinions, 
or  that  when  habitually  engaged  in  such  discipline,  they  often  ac 
quire  independent  habits  of  thought,  applicable  to  other  depart 
ments  of  human  learning,  such  arguments  would  by  no  means 
have  propitiated  the  critic,  or  have  induced  him  to  moderate  his 
disapprobation  of  the  proposed  innovations.  In  the  mind  of  John 
son  there  was  a  leaning  to  superstition,  and  no  one  was  more  con 
tent  to  leave  the  pupil  to  tread  forever  in  beaten  paths,  and  to 
cherish  extreme  reverence  for  authority,  for  which  end  the  whole 
system  then  in  vogue  in  the  English  schools  and  colleges  was  ad 
mirably  conceived.  For  it  confined  the  studies  of  young  men,  up 
to  the  age  of  twenty-two,  as  far  as  possible  to  the  non-progressive 
departments  of  knowledge,  to  the  ancient  models  of  classical  ex 
cellence,  whether  in  poetry  or  prose,  to  theological  treatises,  to 
the  history  and  philosophy  of  the  ancients  rather  than  the  mod 
erns,  and  to  pure  mathematics  rather  than  their  application  to 
physics.  No  modern  writer  was  more  free  from  fear  of  inquiry, 
more  anxious  to  teach  the  millions  to  think  and  reason  for  them 
selves,  no  one  ever  looked  forward  more  enthusiastically  to  the 
future  growth  and  development  of  the  human  mind,  than  Chan- 
ning.  If  his  own  education  had  not  been  cast  in  an  antique 
mold,  he  would  have  held  up  Milton  as  a  model  for  imitation, 
not  only  for  his  love  of  classical  lore  and  poetry,  but  for  his  wish 
to  cultivate  a  knowledge  of  the  works  of  nature. 

Certainly  no  people  ever  started  with  brighter  prospects  of 
uniting  the  promotion  of  both  these  departments,  than  the  people 


CHAP.  XII.]  ORIGIN  OF  FREE  SCHOOLS.  159 

of  New  England  at  this  moment.  Of  the  free  schools  which 
they  have  founded,  and  the  plan  of  education  adopted  by  them 
for  children  of  all  sects  and  stations  in  society,  they  feel  justly 
proud,  for  it  is  the  most  original  thing  which  America  has  yet 
produced.  The  causes  of  their  extraordinary  success  and  recent 
progress,  well  deserve  more  attention  than  they  have  usually 
received  from  foreigners,  especially  as  it  seems  singular  at  first 
sight,  and  almost  paradoxical,  that  a  commonwealth  founded  by 
the  Puritans,  whom  we  are  accustomed  to  regard  as  the  enemies 
of  polite  literature  and  science,  should  now  take  so  prominent  a 
lead  as  the  patrons  of  both  ;  or  that  a  sect  which  was  so  prone 
to  bibliolatry  that  they  took  their  pattern  and  model  of  civil 
government,  and  even  their  judicial  code,  from  the  Old  Testament, 
who  carried  their  theory  of  the  union  of  Church  and  State  so  far 
as  to  refuse  the  civil  franchise  to  all  who  were  not  in  full  com 
munion  with  their  Church,  and  who  persecuted  for  a  time  some 
non-conformists,  even  to  the  death,  should  nevertheless  have  set 
an  example  to  the  world  of  religious  toleration,  and  have  been 
the  first  to  establish  schools  for  popular  education  open  to  the 
children  of  all  denominations — Romanist,  Protestant,  and  Jew. 
If  any  one  entertains  a  doubt  that  the  peculiar  character 
stamped  upon  the  present  generation  of  New  Englanders,  in 
relation  to  religious  and  political  affairs,  is  derived  directly  and 
indisputably  from  their  Puritan  ancestors,  let  them  refer  to  the 
history  of  Massachusetts.  According  to  the  calculation  of  Ban 
croft,  the  first  Puritan  settlers  of  New  England  are  the  parents 
of  one-third  of  the  whole  white  population  of  the  United  States. 
Within  the  first  fifteen  years  (and  there  never  was  afterward  any 
considerable  increase  from  England)  there  came  over  21,200 
persons,  or  4000  families.  Their  descendants,  he  says,  are  now 
(1840)  not  far  from  4,000,000.  Each  family  has  multiplied 
on  the  average  to  1000  souls,  and  they  have  carried  to  New 
York  and  Ohio,  where  they  constitute  half  the  population,  the 
Puritan  system  of  free  schools,  which  they  established  from  the 
beginning.  When  we  recollect  that  the  population  of  all  England 
is  computed  to  have  scarcely  exceeded  five  millions  when  the 
chief  body  of  the  Puritans  first  emigrated  to  the  New  World,  we 


160  FIRST  PURITAN  SETTLERS.  [CHAP.  XII. 

may  look  upon,  the  present  descendants  of  the  first  colonists  as 
constituting  a  nation  hardly  inferior  in  numbers  to  what  England 
itse]f  was  only  two  centuries  before  our  times.  The  development, 
therefore,  of  the  present  inhabitants  from  a  small  original  stock 
has  been  so  rapid,  and  the  intermediate  generations  so  few,  that 
we  must  be  quite  prepared  to  discover  in  the  founders  of  the  colony 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  the  germ  of  all  the  wonderful  results 
which  have  since  so  rapidly  unfolded  themselves. 

Nor  is  this  difficult.  In  the  first  place,  before  the  great  civil 
war  broke  out  in  England,  when  the  principal  emigration  took 
place  to  Massachusetts,  the  Puritans  were  by  no  means  an  illit 
erate  or  uncultivated  sect.  They  reckoned  in  their  ranks  a 
considerable  number  of  men  of  good  station  and  family,  who  had 
received  the  best  education  which  the  schools  and  universities 
then  afforded.  Some  of  the  most  influential  of  the  early  New 
England  divines,  such  as  Cotton  Mather,  were  good  scholars,  and 
have  left  writings  which  display  much  reading  and  an  acquaint 
ance  with  the  Greek  and  Latin  languages.  Milton's  "  Paradise 
Lost"  usually  accompanied  the  Bible  into  the  log-houses  of  the 
early  settlers,  and  with  the  "  Paradise  Lost"  the  minor  poems 
of  the  same  author  were  commonly  associated. 

The  Puritans  who  first  went  into  exile,  after  enduring  much 
oppression  in  their  native  country,  were  men  who  were  ready  to 
brave  the  wilderness  rather  than  profess  doctrines  or  conform  to 
a  ritual  which  they  abhorred.  They  were  a  pure  and  conscien 
tious  body.  They  might  be  ignorant  or  fanatical,  but  they  were 
at  least  sincere,  and  no  hypocrites  had  as  yet  been  tempted  to 
join  them  for  the  sake  of  worldly  promotion,  as  happened  at  a 
later  period,  when  Puritanism  in  the  mother  country  had  become 
dominant  in  the  state.  Full  of  faith,  and  believing  that  their 
religious  tenets  must  be  strengthened  by  free  investigation,  they 
held  that  the  study  and  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures  should 
not  be  the  monopoly  of  a  particular  order  of  men,  but  that  every 
layman  was  bound  to  search  them  for  himself.  Hence  they  were 
anxious  to  have  all  their  children  taught  to  read.  So  early  as 
the  year  1647,  they  instituted  common  schools,  the  law  declaring 
"  that  all  the  brethren  shall  teach  their  children  and  apprentices 


CHAP.  XII.]  SCHOOLS  EARLY  FOUNDED.  161 

to  read,  and  that  every  township  of  fifty  householders  shall  ap 
point  one  to  teach  all  the  children."^ 

Very  different  was  the  state  of  things  in  the  contemporary 
colony  of  Virginia,  to  which  the  Cavaliers  and  the  members  of 
the  Established  Church  were  thronging.  Even  fifteen  or  twenty 
years  later,  Sir  William  Berkeley,  who  was  governor  of  Virginia 
for  nearly  forty  years,  and  was  one  of  the  best  of  the  colonial 
rulers,  spoke  thus,  in  the  full  sincerity  of  his  heart,  of  his  own 
province,  in  a  letter  written  after  the  restoration  of  Charles  II.  : 
— "I  thank  God  there  are  no  free  schools  or  printing,  and  I  hope 
we  shall  not  have  them  these  hundred  years.  For  learning  has 
brought  heresy  and  disobedience  and  sects  into  the  world,  and 
printing  has  divulged  them,  and  libels  against  the  best  govern 
ment.  God  keep  us  from  both."f 

Sir  William  Berkeley  was  simply  expressing  here,  in  plain 
terms,  the  chief  motives  which  still  continue  to  defeat  or  retard 
the  cause  of  popular  education  in  some  parts  of  the  United  States 
and  in  many  countries  of  Europe,  England  not  excepted — a 
dread  of  political  change  while  the  people  remain  in  ignorance, 
and  a  fear  of  removing  that  ignorance,  lest  it  should  bring  on 
changes  of  religious  opinion.  The  New  Englanders  were  from 
the  beginning  so  republican  in  spirit,  that  they  were  not  likely  to 
share  Governor  Berkeley's  apprehensions  of  a  growing  dislike  to 
"  the  best  of  governments,"  as  he  termed  the  political  maxims  of 
the  Stuarts  ;  and  if,  for  a  time,  they  cherished  hopes  of  preserv 
ing  uniformity  of  religious  opinion,  and  even  persecuted  some  who 
would  not  conform  to  their  views,  their  intolerance  was  of  short 
duration,  and  soon  gave  way  to  those  enlightened  views  of  civil 
and  religious  freedom  which  they  had  always  professed,  even 
when  they  failed  to  carry  them  into  practice. 

If  we  contrast  the  principles  before  alluded  to  of  the  leading 
men  in  Massachusetts  with  those  of  the  more  southern  settlers, 
in  the  early  part  of  the  seventeenth  century,  we  learn  without 
surprise  that  at  a  time  when  there  was  not  one  bookseller's  shop 
in  Virginia  and  no  printing  presses,  there  were  several  in  Boston, 

*  Bancroft,  vol.  i.  p.  458. 

t  Chalmers,  cited  by  Graham,  Hist,  of  U.  S.,  vol.  i.  p.  103. 


162  PROGRESS  IN  RELIGION.  [CHAP.  XII. 

with  no  less  than  five  printing-offices,  a  fact  which  reflects  the 
more  credit  on  the  Puritans,  because  at  the  same  period  (1724) 
there  were  no  less  than  thirty-four  counties  in  the  mother  country, 
Lancashire  being  one  of  the  number,  in  which  there  was  no 
printer.^ 

When  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  were  about  to  sail  in  the  May 
flower  from  Leyden,  a  solemn  fast  was  held  before  they  embarked, 
and  their  pastor,  Robinson,  gave  them  a  farewell  address,  in 
which  these  memorable  words  are  recorded  : — 

"  I  charge  you,  before  God  and  his  blessed  angels,  that  you 
follow  rne  no  further  than  you  have  seen  me  follow  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  The  Lord  has  more  truth  yet  to  break  forth  out 
of  his  holy  word.  For  my  part,  I  can  not  sufficiently  bewail 
the  condition  of  the  reformed  churches,  who  are  come  to  a  period 
in  religion,  and  will  go  at  present  no  further  than  the  instruments 
of  their  first  reformation.  The  Lutherans  can  not  be  drawn  to 
go  beyond  what  Luther  saw.  Whatever  part  of  His  will  our 
good  God  has  imparted  and  revealed  unto  Calvin,  they  will  die 
rather  than  embrace  it.  And  the  Calvinists,  you  see,  stick  fast 
where  they  were  left  by  that  great  man  of  God,  who  yet  saw  not 
all  things.  This  is  a  misery  much  to  be  lamented  ;  for,  though 
they  were  burning  and  shining  lights  in  their  times,  yet  they 
penetrated  not  into  the  whole  counsel  of  God  :  but,  were  they 
now  living,  they  would  be  as  willing  to  embrace  further  light  as 
that  which  they  first  received.  I  beseech  you  to  remember  it ; 
it  is  an  article  of  your  church-covenant,  that  you  will  be  ready  to 
receive  whatever  truth  shall  be  made  known  unto  you  from  the 
written  word  of  God.  Remember  that  and  every  other  article 
of  your  most  sacred  covenant." 

It  may  be  said  that  the  spirit  of  progress,  the  belief  in  the 
future  discovery  of  new  truths,  and  the  expansion  of  Christianity, 
which  breathes  through  every  passage  of  this  memorable  dis 
course,  did  not  characterize  the  New  England  Independents  any 
more  than  the  members  of  other  sects.  Like  the  rest,  they  had 
embodied  their  interpretations  of  Scripture  in  certain  fixed  and 
definite  propositions,  and  were  .but  little  disposed  to  cherish  the 
*  Macaulay,  History  of  England,  vol.  i.  p.  392,  who  cites  Nichols. 


CHAP.  XII.]  NO  PENALTIES  FOR  DISSENT.  163 

doctrine  of  the  gradual  development  of  Christianity.  The  Roman 
ists  had  stopped  short  at  the  council  of  Trent,  when  the  decrees 
of  a  general  council  were  canonized  by  the  sanction  of  an  infal 
lible  Pope.  In  like  manner,  almost  every  Protestant  church  has 
acted  as  if  religion  ceased  to  be  progressive  at  the  precise  moment 
of  time  when  their  own  articles  of  belief  were  drawn  up,  after 
much  dispute  and  difference  of  opinion. 

But  the  precepts  inculcated  by  Pastor  Robinson  were  delivered 
to  a  body  of  men  whose  form  of  ecclesiastical  polity  was  very 
peculiar  ;  who  held  that  each  congregation,  each  separate  society 
of  fellow- worshipers,  constituted  within  themselves  a  perfect  and 
independent  church,  whose  duty  it  was  to  compose  for  itself  and 
modify  at  pleasure  its  rules  of  scriptural  interpretation.  In  con 
formity  with  these  ideas,  the  common  law  of  New  England  had 
ruled,  that  the  majority  of  the  pew-holders  in  each  church  should 
retain  their  property  in  a  meeting-house,  and  any  endowment 
belonging  to  it,  whatever  new  opinions  they  might,  in  the  course 
of  time,  choose  to  adopt.  In  other  words,  if,  in  the  lapse  of  ages, 
they  should  deviate  from  the  original  standard  of  faith,  they 
should  not  suffer  the  usual  penalties  of  dissent,  by  being  dispos 
sessed  of  the  edifice  in  which  they  were  accustomed  to  worship, 
or  of  any  endowments  given  or  bequeathed  for  a  school-house  or 
the  support  of  a  pastor,  but  should  continue  to  hold  them  ;  the 
minority  who  still  held  fast  to  the  original  tenets  of  the  sect, 
having  to  seek  a  new  place  of  worship,  but  being  allowed  to 
dispose  of  their  pews,  as  of  every  other  freehold,  if  purchasers 
could  be  found. 

Every  year  in  some  parts  of  New  England,  where  the  popu 
lation  is  on  the  increase,  the  manner  in  which  some  one  of  these 
new  congregations  starts  into  existence  may  be  seen.  A  few 
individuals,  twenty  perhaps,  are  in  the  habit  of  meeting  together 
on  the  Sabbath  in  a  private  dwelling,  or  in  the  school-house 
already  built  for  the  children  of  all  denominations  in  the  new 
village.  One  of  the  number  offers  a  prayer,  another  reads  a 
chapter  in  the  Bible,  another  a  printed  sermon,  and  perhaps  a 
fourth  offers  remarks,  by  way  of  exhortation,  to  his  neighbors. 
As  the  population  increases,  they  begin  to  think  of  forming  them- 


164  CONGREGATIONAL  CHURCHES.  [CHAP.  XTI. 

selves  into  a  church,  and  settling  a  minister.  But  first  they 
have  to  agree  upon  some  creed  or  covenant  which  is  to  be  the 
basis  of  their  union.  In  drawing  up  this  creed  they  are  usually 
assisted  by  some  neighboring  minister,  and  it  is  then  submitted 
for  approbation  to  a  meeting  of  all  the  church  members,  and 
is  thoroughly  discussed  and  altered  till  it  suits  the  peculiar  and 
prevailing  shades  of  opinion  of  the  assembly.  When  at  length 
it  is  assented  to,  it  is  submitted  to  a  council  of  neighboring 
ministers,  who  examine  into  its  scriptural  basis,  and  who,  accord 
ing  as  they  approve  or  disapprove  of  it,  give  or  withhold  "  the 
hand  of  fellowship." 

The  next  step  is  to  elect  a  pastor.  After  hearing  several 
candidates  preach,  they  invite  one  to  remain  with  them  ;  and, 
after  he  has  been  ordained  by  the  neighboring  ministers,  agree 
on  the  salary  to  be  insured  to  him,  for  the  collection  of  which 
certain  members  become  responsible.  It  rarely  exceeds  700 
dollars,  and  more  usually  amounts  in  rural  districts  to  500  dol 
lars,  or  100  guineas  annually. 

By  the  Congregationalists,  a  church  is  defined  to  be  a  com 
pany  of  pious  persons,  who  voluntarily  unite  together  for  the 
worship  of  God.  Each  company  being  self-created,  is  entirely 
independent  of  every  other,  has  the  power  to  elect  its  own  offi 
cers,  and  to  admit  or  exclude  members.  Each  professes  to  regard 
creeds  and  confessions  of  faith  simply  as  convenient  guides  in  the 
examination  of  candidates,  not  standards  of  religious  truth.  They 
may  be  the  opinions  of  good  and  wise  men,  venerable  by  their 
antiquity,  but  of  no  binding  authority,  and  are  to  be  measured 
in  each  separate  church  by  their  conformity  with  Scripture.  As 
to  the  union  of  different  churches,  it  is  pure]y  voluntary,  and  has 
been  compared  to  a  congress  of  sovereign  states,  having  certain 
general  interests  in  common,  but  entirely  independent  of  each 
other.  There  are  no  articles  of  union  ;  but  if  any  old  or  new 
society  is  thought  to  depart  so  widely  from  the  other  churches 
that  they  can  no  longer  be  recognized  as  Christians,  the  rest 
withhold  or  withdraw  their  fellowship. 

Upon  the  whole,  the  separate  congregational  churches,  both 
in  Old  and  New  England,  in  all  above  3000  in  number,  have 


CHAP.  XII.]  CONGREGATIONAL  CHURCHES.  165 

held  together  more  firmly  for  two  centuries,  and  have  deviated 
far  less  from  the  original  standard  of  faith,  than  might  have 
been  expected ;  although  in  Massachusetts  and  some  neighboring 
States,  more  than  a  hundred  meeting-houses,  some  of  them  hav 
ing  endowments  belonging  to  them,  have  in  the  course  of  the 
last  forty  years  been  quietly  transferred,  by  the  majority  of  the 
pew-holders,  to  what  may  be  said  to  constitute  new  denomina 
tions.  The  change  usually  takes  place  when  a  new  minister  is 
inducted.  This  system  of  ecclesiastical  polity  is  peculiarly  re 
pugnant  to  the  ideas  entertained  by  churchmen  in  general,  whose 
elibrts  are  almost  invariably  directed,  whether  in  Protestant  or 
Romanist  communities,  to  inculcate  a  deep  sense  of  the  guilt  of 
schism,  and  to  visit  that  guilt  as  far  as  possible  with  pecuniary 
penalties  and  spiritual  outlawry.  The  original  contract  is  usually 
based  on  a  tacit  assumption  that  religion  is  not,  like  other  branch 
es  of  knowledge,  progressive  in  its  nature ;  and,  therefore,  instead 
of  leaving  the  mind  unfettered  and  free  to  embrace  and  profess 
new  interpretations,  as  would  be  thought  desirable  where  the 
ivorks  of  God  are  the  subjects  of  investigation,  every  precaution  is 
taken  to  prevent  doubt,  fluctuation,  and  change.  It  is  even 
deemed  justifiable  to  exact  early  vows  and  pledges  against  the 
teaching  of  any  new  doctrines ;  and  if  the  zealous  inquirer  should, 
in  the  course  of  years  and  much  reading,  catch  glimpses  of  truths 
not  embodied  in  his  creed,  riay,  the  very  grounds  of  which  could 
not  be  known  to  him  when  he  entered  the  church,  nor  to  the 
original  framers  of  his  articles  of  religion,  no  provision  is  made 
for  enabling  him  to  break  silence,  or  openly  to  declare  that  he 
has  modified  his  views.  On  the  contrary,  such  a  step  must 
usually  be  attended  with  disgrace,  and  often  with  destitution. 

Nor  does  the  intensity  of  this  feeling  seem  by  any  means  to 
diminish  in  modern  times  with  the  multiplication  of  new  sects. 
It  is  even  exhibited  as  strongly  in  bodies  which  dissent  from  old 
establishments  as  in  those  establishments  themselves.  Wesley, 
for  example,  took  the  utmost  care  that  every  Methodist  chapel 
should  be  so  vested  in  the  "  General  Conference,"  as  to  insure 
the  forfeiture  of  the  building  to  the  trustees,  if  any  particular 
congregation  should  deviate  from  his  standard  of  faith,  or  even 


166  FUTURE  VARIATIONS  IN  CREEDS.  [€HAP.  XII, 

should  return  to  the  Church  of  England,  whose  doctrines  they 
had  never  renounced.  But  the  most  signal  instance  of  a  fixed 
determination  to  prevent  any  one  congregation  from  changing  its 
mind  in  regard  to  any  dogma  or  rite,  until  all  the  others  associat 
ed  with  it  are  ready  to  move  on  in  the  same  direction,  has  been 
exemplified  in  our  times  by  the  Free  Kirk  of  Scotland.  More 
than  a  million  of  the  population  suddenly  deserted  the  old  estab 
lishment,  and  were  compelled  to  abandon  hundreds  of  ecclesiasti 
cal  buildings,  in  which  they  had  worshiped  from  their  childhood. 
Some  of  these  edifices  remained  useless  for  a  time,  locked  up, 
and  no  service  performed  in  them,  because  the  minister  and 
nearly  all  the  parishioners  had  joined  in  the  secession.  It  was 
necessary  for  the  separatists  to  erect  700  or  800  new  edifices 
and  school-houses,  on  which  they  expended  several  hundred 
thousand  pounds,  having  often  no  small  difficulty  to  obtain  new 
sites  for  churches,  so  that  their  ministers  preached  for  a  time, 
like  the  Covenanters  of  old,  in  the  open  air.  It  was  under  these 
circumstances,  and  at  the  moment  of  submitting  to  such  sacrifices, 
that  their  new  ecclesiastical  organization  was  completed,  provid 
ing  that  if  any  one  of  several  hundred  congregations  should  here 
after  deviate,  in  ever  so  slight  a  degree,  from  any  one  of  the 
numerous  articles  of  faith  drawn  up  nearly  three  centuries  ago, 
under  the  sanction  of  John  Knox,  or  from  any  one  of  the  rules  and 
forms  of  church  government  then  enacted,  they  should  be  dispos 
sessed  of  the  newly  erected  building,  and  all  funds  thereunto 
belonging.  Had  any  other  contract  been  proposed,  implying  the 
possibility  of  any  future  change  or  improvement  in  doctrine  or 
ceremony,  not  a  farthing  would  have  been  contributed  by  these 
zealous  Presbyterians  ;  nor  have  they  acted  inconsistently,  inas 
much  as  they  are  fully  persuaded  that  they  neither  participate  in 
an  onward  or  backward  movement,  but  are  simply  reverting  to 
that  pure  and  perfect  standard  of  orthodoxy  of  the  middle  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  from  which  others  have  so  sinfully  departed. 

It  is  only  in  times  comparatively  modern,  that  the  opinion  has 
gained  ground  in  Europe,  and  very  recently  in  Scotland,  that  in 
the  settlement  of  landed  property  there  should  be  some  limitation 
of  the  power  of  the  dead  over  the  living,  and  that  a  testator  can 


CHAP.  XII.]          FUTURE  VARIATIONS  IN  CREEDS.  167 

not  be  gifted  with  such  foresight  as  to  enable  him  to  know 
beforehand  in  what  manner,  and  subject  to  what  conditions,  his 
wealth  may  be  best  distributed  among  his  descendants,  several 
generations  hence,  for  their  own  benefit  or  that  of  the  community 
at  large.  Whether,  in  ecclesiastical  matters,  also,  there  should 
not  be  some  means  provided  of  breaking  the  entail  without  resort 
ing  to  what  is  termed  in  Scotland  "  a  disruption,"  so  that  devia 
tions  from  theological  formularies  many  centuries  old,  should  not 
be  visited  with  pecuniary  losses  or  disgrace — whether  it  be  ex 
pedient  to  allow  the  Romanist  or  Calvinist,  the  Swedenborgian 
or  Socinian,  and  every  other  sectary  to  enforce,  by  the  whole 
power  of  the  wealth  he  may  bequeath  to  posterity,  the  teaching 
of  his  own  favorite  dogmas  for  an  indefinite  time,  and  when  a 
large  part  of  the  population  on  whom  he  originally  bestowed  his* 
riches  have  altered  their  minds,  are  points  on  which  a  gradual 
change  has  been  taking  place  in  the  opinions  of  not  a  few  of  the 
higher  classes  at  least.  Of  this  no  one  will  doubt  who  remem 
bers  or  will  refer  to  the  debates  in  both  Houses  of  the  British 
Parliament  in  1844,^  and  the  speeches  of  eminent  statesmen  of 
opposite  politics  when  the  Dissenters'  Chapel  Bill  was  discussed. 
But  whatever  variety  of  views  there  may  still  be  on  this  sub 
ject  in  Europe,  it  is  now  the  settled  opinion  of  many  of  the  most 
thoughtful  of  the  New  Englanders,  that  the  assertion  of  the 
independence  of  each  separate  congregation,  was  as  great  a  step 
toward  freedom  of  conscience  as  all  that  had  been  previously 
gained  by  Luther's  Reformation  ;  and  it  constitutes  one  of  those 
characteristics  of  church  government  in  New  England,  which, 
whether  approved  of  or  not,  can  not  with  propriety  be  lost  sight 
of,  when  we  endeavor  to  trace  out  the  sources  of  the  love  of  pro 
gress,  which  has  taken  so  strong  a  hold  of  the  public  mind  in  New 
England,  and  which  has  so  much  facilitated  their  plan  of  national 
education.  To  show  how  widely  the  spirit  of  their  peculiar 
ecclesiastical  system  has  spread,  I  may  state  that  even  the 
Roman  Catholics  have,  in  different  states,  and  in  three  or  foui 
cases  (one  of  which  is  still  pending,  in  1848—9),  made  an  appeal 
to  the  courts  of  law,  and  endeavored  to  avail  themselves  of  the 
*  See  the  Debates  on  7  &  8  Viet.,  ch.  xlv,  A  D.  1844. 


168  CONGREGATIONAL  POLITY.  [CHAP.  XII. 

principle  of  the  Independents,  so  that  the  majority  of  a  separate 
congregation  should  be  entitled  to  resist  the  appointment  by  their 
bishop  of  a  priest  to  whom  they  had  strong  objections.  The 
courts  seem  hitherto  to  have  determined  that,  as  the  building 
belonged  to  the  majority  of  the  pew-holders,  they  might  deal 
with  it  as  they  pleased  ;  but  they  have  declined  to  pronounce 
any  opinion  on  points  of  ecclesiastical  discipline,  leaving  the 
members  of  each  sect  free,  in  this  respect,  to  obey  the  dictates 
of  their  own  conscience. 

But  to  exemplify  the  more  regular  working  of  the  congrega 
tional  polity  within  its  own  legitimate  sphere,  I  will  mention  a 
recent  case  which  came  more  home  to  my  own  scientific  pursuits. 
A.  young  man  of  superior  talent,  with  whom  I  was  acquainted, 
who  was  employed  as  a  geologist  in  the  state  survey  of  Pennsyl 
vania,  was  desirous  of  becoming  a  minister  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  in  that  state  ;  but,  when  examined,  previous  to  ordina 
tion,  he  was  unable  to  give  satisfactory  answers  to  questions 
respecting  the  plenary  inspiration  of  Scripture,  because  he  con 
sidered  such  a  tenet,  when  applied  to  the  first  book  of  Gene 
sis,  inconsistent  with  discoveries  now  universally  admitted,  re 
specting  the  high  antiquity  of  the  earth,  and  the  existence  of 
living  beings  on  the  globe  long  anterior  to  man.  The  rejected 
candidate,  whose  orthodoxy  on  all  other  points  was  fully  admitted, 
was  then  invited  by  an  Independent  congregation  in  New  En 
gland,  to  become  their  pastor  ;  and  when  he  accepted  the  offer, 
the  other  associated  churches  were  called  upon  to  decide  whether 
they  would  assist  in  ordaining  one  who  claimed  the  right  to  teach 
freely  his  own  views  on  the  question  at  issue.  The  right  of  the 
congregation  to  elect  him,  whether  the  other  churches  approved 
of  the  doctrine  or  not,  was  conceded  ;  and  a  strong  inclination  is 
always  evinced,  by  the  affiliated  societies,  to  come,  if  possible,  to 
an  amicable  understanding.  Accordingly,  a  discussion  ensued, 
and  is  perhaps  still  going  on,  whether,  consistently  with  a  fair 
interpretation  of  Scripture,  or  with  what  is  essential  to  the  faith 
of  a  Christian,  the  doctrine  of  complete  and  immediate  inspiration 
may  or  may  not  be  left  as  an  open  question. 

Some  of  my  readers  may  perhaps  exclaim  that  this  incident 


CHAP.  XII. ]      CHURCHMEN  ON  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE.  169 

proves  that  the  Congregationalists  of  New  England  are  far  behind 
many  orthodox  divines  of  the  Church  of  England,  or  even  the 
Church  of  Rome,  as  shown  by  Dr.  Wiseman's  lectures,  in  the 
liberality  of  their  opinions  on  this  head,  and  that  the  establish 
ment  of  the  true  theory  of  astronomy  satisfied  the  Protestant 
world,  at  least,  that  the  Bible  was  never  intended  as  a  revelation 
of  physical  science.  No  doubt  it  is  most  true,  that  within  the 
last  forty  years  many  distinguished  writers  and  dignitaries  of  the 
English  Church  have  expressed  their  belief  very  openly  in  regard 
to  the  earth's  antiquity,  and  the  leading  truths  established  by 
geology.  "  The  Records  of  Creation,"  published  in  1818,  by  the 
present  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  (Dr.  Sumner),  the  writings  of 
the  present  Dean  of  Westminster  (Dr.  Buckland),  those  of  the 
Dean  of  LlandafF(Dr.  Conybeare),  and  of  the  Woodwardian  Pro 
fessor  of  Cambridge  (The  Rev.  A.  Sedgwick),  and  others,  might 
be  adduced  in  confirmation.  All  of  these,  indeed,  have  been 
cited  by  the  first  teachers  of  geology  in  America,  especially  in  the 
"  orthodox  universities"  of  New  England,  as  countenancing  the 
adoption  of  their  new  theories  ;  and  I  have  often  heard  scientific 
men  in  America  express  their  gratitude  to  the  English  Church 
men  for  the  protection  which  their  high  authority  afforded  them 
against  popular  prejudices  at  a  critical  moment,  when  many  of 
the  State  Legislatures  were  deliberating  whether  they  should  or 
should  not  appropriate  large  sums  of  the  public  money  to  the  pro 
motion  of  geological  surveys.  The  point,  however,  under  dis 
cussion  in  the  Congregationalist  Church,  to  which  I  have  alluded, 
is  in  reality  a  different  one,  and  of  the  utmost  importance  ;  for  it 
is  no  less  than  to  determine,  not  whether  a  minister  may  publish 
books  or  essays  declaratory  of  his  own  individual  views,  respect 
ing  the  bearing  of  physical  science  on  certain  portions  of  Scrip 
ture,  but  whether  he  may,  without  reproach  or  charge  of  indis 
cretion,  freely  and  candidly  expound  to  all  whom  he  addresses, 
rich  and  poor,  from  the  pulpit,  those  truths  on  which  few  well- 
informed  men  now  any  longer  entertain  a  doubt.  Until  such 
permission  be  fairly  granted,  the  initiated  may,  as  we  well  know, 
go  on  for  ages  embracing  one  creed,  while  the  multitude  holds 
fast  to  another,  and  looks  with  suspicion  and  distrust  on  the  phi- 

VOL:          I.—  H 


170  BIBLICAL  CONTROVERSY.  [CHAP.  XII. 

losopher  who  unreservedly  makes  known  the  most  legitimate  de 
ductions  from  facts.  Such,  in  truth,  is  the  present  condition  of 
things  throughout  Christendom,  the  millions  being  left  in  the 
same  darkness  respecting  the  antiquity  of  the  globe,  and  the  suc 
cessive  races  of  animals  and  plants  which  inhabited  it  before  the 
creation  of  man,  as  they  were  in  the  middle  ages  ;  or,  rather, 
each  new  generation  being  allowed  to  grow  up  with,  or  derive 
from  Genesis,  ideas  directly  hostile  to  the  conclusions  universally 
received  by  all  who  have  studied  the  earth's  autobiography.  Not 
merely  the  multitude,  but  many  of  those  who  are  called  learned, 
still  continue,  while  beholding  with  delight  the  external  beauty 
of  the  rocks  and  mountains,  to  gaze  on  them  as  Virgil's  hero  ad 
mired  his  shield  of  divine  workmanship,  without  dreaming  of  its 
historical  import : — 

"  Dona  parentis 
Miratur,  rerumque  ignarus  imagine  gaudet." 

The  extent  to  which,  in  Protestant  countries,  and  where  there 
is  a  free  press,  opinions  universally  entertained  by  the  higher 
classes,  may  circulate  among  them  in  print  and  may  yet  remain 
a  sealed  book  to  the  million  as  completely  as  if  they  were  still  in 
sacerdotal  keeping,  is  such  as  no  one  antecedently  to  experience 
would  have  believed  possible.  The  discoveries  alluded  to  are  by 
no  means  confined  to  the  domain  of  physical  science.  I  may  cite 
as  one  remarkable  example  the  detection  of  the  spurious  nature 
of  the  celebrated  verse  in  the  First  Epistle  of  John,  chap.  v.  verse 
7,  commonly  called  "the  Three  Heavenly  Witnesses."  Luther, 
in  the  last  edition  which  he  published  of  the  Bible,  had  expunged 
this  passage  as  spurious  ;  but,  shortly  after  his  death,  it  was  re 
stored  by  his  followers,  in  deference  to  popular  prepossessions  and 
Trinitarian  opinions.  Erasmus  omitted  it  in  his  editions  of  the 
New  Testament  in  the  years  1516  and  1519;  and  after  it  had 
been  excluded  by  several  other  eminent  critics,  Sir  Isaac  Newton 
wrote  his  celebrated  dissertation  on  the  subject  between  the  years 
1690  and  1700,  strengthening  the  arguments  previously  adduced 
against  the  genuineness  of  the  verse.  Finally,  Porson  published, 
in  1788  and  1790,  his  famous  letters,  by  which  the  question  was 


CHAP.  XII.]  BIBLICAL  CONTROVERSY.  171 

forever  set  at  rest.  It  was  admitted  that  in.  all  the  Greek  MSS. 
of  the  highest  antiquity,  the  disputed  passages  were  wanting,  and 
Person  enumerated  a  long  list  of  Greek  and  Latin  authors,  in 
cluding  the  names  of  many  fathers  of  the  Church,  who,  in  their 
controversies  with  Arians  and  Socinians,  had  not  availed  them 
selves  of  the  text  in  question,  although  they  had  cited  some  of 
the  verses  which  immediately  precede  and  follow,  which  lend  a 
comparatively  feeble  support  to  their  argument. 

All  who  took  the  lead  against  the  genuineness  of  the  passage, 
except  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  were  Trinitarians  ;  but  doubtless  felt 
with  Person,  that  "  he  does  the  best  service  to  truth  who  hinders 
it  from  being  supported  by  falsehood."  Throughout  the  con 
troversy,  many  eminent  divines  of  the  Anglican  church  have 
distinguished  themselves  by  their  scholarship  and  candor,  and  it 
is  well  known  by  those  who  have  of  late  years  frequented  the 
literary  circles  of  Rome,  that  the  learned  Cardinal  Mai  was 
prevented,  in  1838,  from  publishing  his  edition  of  the  Codex 
Vaticanus,  because  he  could  not  obtain  leave  from  the  late  Pope 
(Gregory  XVI.)  to  omit  the  interpolated  passages,  and  had 
satisfied  himself  that  they  were  wanting  in  all  the  most  ancient 
MSS.  at  Rome  and  Paris.  The  Pontiff  refused,  because  he  was 
bound  by  the  decrees  of  the  Council  of  Trent,  and  of  a  Church 
pretending  to  infallibility,  which  had  solemnly  sanctioned  the 
Vulgate,  and  the  Cardinal  had  too  much  good  faith  to  give  the 
authority  of  his  name  to  what  he  regarded  as  a  forgery.  In  Ox 
ford,  in  1819,  the  verse  was  riot  admitted,  by  the  examiners  in 
Divinity,  as  Scripture  warranty  for  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  ; 
yet,  not  only  is  it  retained  in  the  English  Prayer-Book,  in  the 
epistle  selected  for  the  first  Sunday  after  Easter,  but  the  Protest 
ant  Episcopal  Church  in  America,  when  finally  revising  their 
version  of  the  English  Liturgy  in  1801,  several  years  after 
Person's  letters  had  been  published,  did  not  omit  the  passage, 
although  they  had  the  pruning  knife  in  their  hand,  and  were  lop 
ping  off  several  entire  services,  such  as  the  Commination,  Gun 
powder  Treason,  King  Charles  the  Martyr,  the  Restoration  of 
Charles  II.,  and  last,  not  least,  the  Athanasian  Creed.  What 
is  still  more  remarkable,  Protestants  of  every  denomination  have 


172  HOGARTH'S  ELECTION  FEAST.  [CHAP.  XII. 

gone  on  year  after  year  distributing  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
Bibles,  not  only  without  striking  out  this  repudiated  verse,  but 
without  even  affixing  to  it  any  mark  or  annotation  to  show  the 
multitude  that  it  is  given  up  by  every  one  who  has  the  least 
pretension  to  scholarship  and  candor. 

'*  Let  Truth,  stern  arbitress  of  all, 
Interpret  that  original, 
And  for  presumptuous  wrongs  atone  ; — 
Authentic  words  be  given,  or  none  !" 

It  is  from  no  want  of  entire  sympathy  with  the  sentiment 
expressed  in  these  lines  of  Wordsworth,  and  written  by  him  on 
a  blank  leaf  of  Macpherson's  Ossian,  that  literary  or  scientific 
men,  whether  Protestant  or  Catholic,  European  or  American, 
clergy  or  laity,  abstain  in  general  from  communicating  the  results 
of  their  scientific  or  biblical  researches  to  the  million,  still  less 
from  any  apprehension  that  the  essential  truths  of  Christianity 
would  suffer  the  slightest  injury,  were  the  new  views  to  be 
universally  known.  They  hesitate,  partly  from  false  notions  of 
expediency,  and  partly  through  fear  of  the  prejudices  of  the  vulgar. 
They  dare  not  speak  out,  for  the  same  reason  that  the  civil  and 
ecclesiastical  rulers  of  England  halted  for  one  hundred  and 
seventy  years  before  they  had  courage  to  adopt  the  reform  in  the 
Julian  calendar,  which  Gregory  XIII.,  in  accordance  with  astro 
nomical  observations,  had  effected  in  1582. 

Hogarth,  in  his  picture  of  the  Election  Feast,  has  introduced 
a  banner  carried  by  one  of  the  crowd,  on  which  was  inscribed 
the  motto,  "  Give  us  back  our  eleven  days,"  for  he  remembered 
when  the  angry  mob,  irritated  by  the  innovation  of  the  new 
style,  went  screaming  these  words  through  the  streets  of  London. 

In  like  manner,  the  acknowledged  antiquity  of  Egyptian  civil 
ization,  or  of  the  solid  framework  of  the  globe,  with  its  monu 
ments  of  many  extinct  races  of  living  beings,  might,  if  suddenly 
disclosed  to  an  ignorant  people,  raise  as  angry  a  demand  to  give 
them  back  their  old  chronology.  Hence  arises  a  habit  of  con 
cealing  from  the  unlettered  public  discoveries  which  might,  it  is 
thought,  perplex  them,  and  unsettle  their  old  opinions.  This 
method  of  dealing  with  the  most  sacred  of  subjects,  may  thus  be 


CHAP.  XII.]  LAY  TEACHERS.  173 

illustrated  : — A  few  tares  have  grown  up  among  the  wheat ; 
you  must  not  pull  them  up,  or  you  will  loosen  the  soil  and  expose 
the  roofs  of  the  good  grain,  arid  then  all  may  wither  :  moreover, 
you  must  go  on  sowing  the  seeds  of  the  same  tares  in  the  mind 
of  the  rising  generation,  for  you  can  not  open  the  eyes  of  the 
children  without  undeceiving  and  alarming  their  parents.  Now 
the  perpetuation  of  error  among  the  many,  is  only  one  part  of 
the  mischief  of  this  want  of  good  faith,  for  it  is  also  an  abandon 
ment  by  the  few  of  the  high  ground  on  which  their  religion 
ought  to  stand,  namely,  its  truth.  It  accustoms  the  teacher  to 
regard  his  religion  in  its  relation  to  the  millions  as  a  mere  piece 
of  machinery,  like  a  police,  for  preserving  order,  or  enabling  one 
class  of  men  to  govern  another. 

If  such  a  state  of  things  be  unsound  and  unsatisfactory,  it  is 
not  so  much  the  clergy  who  are  to  blame  as  the  laity  ;  for  lay 
men  have  more  freedom  of  action,  and  can  with  less  sacrifice  of 
personal  interests  take  the  initiative  in  a  reform.  The  cure  of 
the  evil  is  obvious  ;  it  consists  in  giving  such  instruction  to  the 
people  at  large  as  would  make  concealment  impossible.  What 
ever  is  known  and  intelligible  to  ordinary  capacities  in  science, 
especially  if  contrary  to  the  first  and  natural  impressions  deriv 
able  from  the  literal  meaning,  or  ordinary  acceptation  of  the  text 
of  Scripture,  whether  in  astronomy,  geology,  or  any  other  depart 
ment  of  knowledge,  should  be  freely  communicated  to  all.  Lay 
teachers,  not  professionally  devoted  and  pledged  to  propagate  the 
opinions  of  particular  sects,  will  do  this  much  more  freely  than 
ecclesiastics,  and,  as  a  matter  of  course,  in  proportion  as  the 
standard  of  public  instruction  is  raised  ;  and  no  order  of  men 
would  be  such  gainers  by  the  measure  as  the  clergy,  especially 
the  most  able  and  upright  among  them.  Every  normal  school, 
every  advance  made  in  the  social  and  intellectual  position  of  the 
lay  teachers,  tends  to  emancipate,  not  the  masses  alone,  but  still 
more  effectually  their  spiritual  guides,  and  would  increase  their 
usefulness  in  a  tenfold  degree.  That  a  clergy  may  be  well 
informed  for  the  age  they  live  in,  and  may  contain  among  them 
many  learned  and  good  men,  while  the  people  remain  in  dark 
ness,  we  know  from  history  ;  for  the  spiritual  instructors  may 


174  PAY  OF  CLERGY.  [CHAP.  XII. 

wish  to  keep  the  multitude  in  ignorance,  with  a  view  of  main 
taining  their  own  po\yer.  But  no  educated  people  will  ever 
tolerate  an  idle,  illiterate,  or  stationary  priesthood.  That  this  is 
impossible,  the  experience  of  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  in 
New  England  has  fully  proved.  In  confirmation  of  this  truth, 
I  may  appeal  to  the  progress  made  by  the  ministers  of  the  Meth 
odist  and  Baptist  churches  of  late  years.  Their  missionaries 
found  the  Congregationalists  slumbering  in  all  the  security  of  an 
old  establishment,  and  soon  made  numerous  converts,  besides 
recruiting  their  ranks  largely  from  newly  arrived  emigrants. 
They  were  able  to  send  more  preachers  into  the  vineyard,  be 
cause  they  required  at  first  scarcely  any  preparation  or  other 
qualification  than  zeal.  .  But  no  sooner  had  the  children  of  the 
first  converts  been  taught  in  the  free  schools  under  an  improved 
system,  than  the  clergy  of  these  very  denominations,  who  had 
for  a  time  gloried  in  their  ignorance  and  spoken  with  contempt 
of  all  human  knowledge,  found  it  necessary  to  study  for  some 
years  in  theological  seminaries,  and  attend  courses  of  church 
history,  the  Greek,  Latin,  Hebrew,  and  German  languages,  the 
modern  writings  of  German  and  other  biblical  scholars,  and 
every  branch  of  divinity.  The  Baptist  college  at  Newton  has 
greatly  distinguished  itself  among  others,  and  that  of  the  Meth 
odists  at  Middletown  in  Connecticut  ;  while  the  Independents 
have  their  theological  college  at  Andover  in  Massachusetts,  which 
has  acquired  much  celebrity,  and  drawn  to  it  pupils  from  great 
distances,  and  of  many  different  denominations. 

The  large  collections  of  books  on  divinity  which  are  now  seen 
in  the  libraries  of  New  England  clergy,  were  almost  unknown 
a  quarter  of  a  century  ago. 

The  average  pay,  also,  of  the  clergy  in  the  rural  districts  of 
New  England  has  increased.  About  the  middle  of  the  last 
century,  it  was  not  more  than  200  dollars  annually,  so  that  they 
were  literally  "  passing  rich  with  forty  pounds  a  year  ;"  whereas 
now  they  usually  receive  500  at  least,  and  some  in  the  cities 
2000  or  3000  dollars.  Nor  can  there  be  a  doubt  that,  in  pro 
portion  as  the  lay  teachers  are  more  liberally  remunerated,  the 
scale  of  income  required  to  command  the  services  of  men  of 


CHAP.  XIL]  POPULAR  INSTRUCTION.  175 

first-rate    talent    in  the  clerical   profession,    must    and   will   be 
raised. 

Already  there  are  many  indications  in  Massachusetts  that  a 
demand  for  higher  qualifications  in  men  educated  for  the  pulpit 
is  springing  up.  It  is  no  bad  augury  to  hear  a  minister  exhort 
his  younger  brethren  at  their  ordination  not  to  stand  in  awe  of 
their  congregations,  but  to  remember  they  have  before  them  sin 
ful  men  who  are  to  be  warned,  not  critics  who  are  to  be  propi 
tiated.  "  Formerly,"  said  Channing,  "  Felix  trembled  before 
Paul ;  it  is  now  the  successor  of  Paul  who  trembles  :" — a  saying 
which,  coming  as  it  did  from  a  powerful  and  successful  preacher, 
implies  that  the  people  are  awaking,  not  that  they  are  growing 
indifferent  about  religious  matters,  but  that  the  day  of  soporific 
discourses,  full  of  empty  declamation  or  unmeaning  common 
places,  is  drawing  to  a  close. 

It  will  be  asked,  however,  even  by  some  who  are  favorable  to 
popular  education,  whether  the  masses  can  have  leisure  to  profit 
in  after  life  by  such  a  style  of  teaching  as  the  government  of 
Massachusetts  is  now  ambitious  of  affording  to  the  youth  of  the 
country,  between  the  ages  of  four  and  fourteen.  To  this  I  may 
answer,  that  in  nations  less  prosperous  and  progressive  it  is  ascer 
tained  that  men  may  provide  for  all  their  bodily  wants,  may  feed 
and  clothe  themselves,  and  yet  give  up  one-seventh  part  of  their 
time,  or  every  Sabbath,  to  their  religious  duties.  That  their  re 
ligion  should  consist  not  merely  in  the  cultivation  of  a  devotional 
spirit  toward  their  Maker,  but  also  in  acquiring  pure  and  lofty 
conceptions  of  his  attributes — a  knowledge  of  the  power  and 
wisdom  displayed  in  his  works — an  acquaintance  with  his  moral 
laws — a  just  sense  of  their  own  responsibility,  and  an  exercise  of 
their  understandings  in  appreciating  the  evidences  of  their  faith, 
few  of  my  readers  will  deny.  To  insure  the  accomplishment  of 
these  objects,  a  preparatory  education  in  good  schools  is  indis 
pensable.  It  is  not  enough  to  build  churches  and  cathedrals,  to 
endow  universities  or  theological  colleges,  or  to  devote  a  large 
portion  of  the  national  revenues  to  enable  a  body  of  spiritual  in 
structors  to  discharge,  among  other  ecclesiastical  duties,  that  ot 
preaching  good  sermons  from  the  pulpit.  Their  seed  may  full 


176  POPULAR  INSTRUCTION.  [CHAP.  XII. 

on  a  soil  naturally  fertile,  but  will  perish  if  there  has  been  no 
previous  culture  of  the  ground.  At  the  end  of  seventy  years 
men  of  good  natural  abilities,  who  have  been  attentive  to  their 
religious  observances,  have  given  up  ten  entire  years  of  their  life, 
a  period  thrice  as  long  as  is  required  for  an  academical  course 
of  study,  and  at  the  close  of  such  a  career  may,  as  we  know,  be 
ignorant,  sensual,  and  superstitious,  and  have  little  love  or  taste 
for  things  intellectual  or  spiritual. 

But  granting  that  time  and  leisure  may  be  found,  it  will  still 
be  asked  whether,  if  men  of  the  humblest  condition  be  taught  to 
enjoy  the  poems  of  Milton  and  Gray,  the  romances  of  Scott,  or 
lectures  on  literature,  astronomy,  and  botany,  or  if  they  read  a 
daily  newspaper  and  often  indulge  in  the  stirring  excitement  of 
party  politics,  they  will  be  contented  with  their  situation  in  life, 
and  submit  to  hard  labor.  All  apprehension  of  such  consequences 
is  rapidly  disappearing  in  the  more  advanced  states  of  the  Ameri 
can  Union.  It  is  acknowledged  by  the  rich  that,  where  the  free 
schools  have  been  most  improved,  the  people  are  least  addicted 
to  intemperance,  are  more  provident,  have  more  respect  for  prop 
erty  and  the  laws,  are  more  conservative,  and  less  led  away  by 
socialist  or  other  revolutionary  doctrines.  So  far  from  indolence 
being  the  characteristic  of  the  laboring  classes,  where  they  are 
best  informed,  the  New  Englanders  are  rather  too  much  given  to 
overwork  both  body  and  brain.  They  make  better  pioneers, 
when  roughing  it  in  a  log-house  in  the  backwoods,  than  the  un 
educated  Highlander  or  Irishman ;  and  the  factory  girls  of 
Lowell,  who  publish  their  "  Offering,"  containing  their  own 
original  poems  and  essays,  work  twelve  hours  a  day,  and  have 
not  yet  petitioned  for  a  ten-hour  bill. 

In  speculating  on  the  probability  of  the  other  states  in  the 
north,  south,  and  west,  some  of  them  differing  greatly  in  the  de 
gree  of  their  social  advancement,  and  many  of  them  retarded  by 
negro  slavery,  adopting  readily  the  example  set  them  by  the 
New  Englanders.  and  establishing  free  and  normal  schools,  I 
find  that  American  enthusiasts  build  their  hopes  chiefly  on  that 
powerful  stimulus  which  they  say  is  offered  by  their  institutions 
for  popular  education — a  stimulus  such  as  was  never  experienced 


CHAP.  XII.]  POPULAR  INSTRUCTION.  177 

before  in  any  country  in  the  world.  This  consists  not  so  much 
in  the  absence  of  pauperism,  or  in  the  individual  liberty  enjoyed 
by  every  one  in  civil  and  religious  rights,  but  in  the  absence  of 
the  influence  of  family  and  fortune — the  fair  field  of  competition, 
freely  open  to  all  who  aspire,  however  humble,  to  rise  one  day 
to  high  employments,  especially  to  official  or  professional  posts, 
whether  lay  or  ecclesiastical,  civil  or  military,  requiring  early 
cultivation.  Few  will  realize  their  ambitious  longings ;  but 
every  parent  feels  it  a  duty  to  provide  that  his  child  should  not 
be  shut  out  from  all  chance  of  winning  some  one  of  the  numerous 
prizes,  which  are  awarded  solely  on  the  ground  of  personal  quali 
fications,  not  always  to  the  most  worthy,  but  at  least  without 
any  regard  to  birth  or  hereditary  wealth.  It  seems  difficult  to 
foresee  the  limit  of  taxation  which  a  population,  usually  very  in 
tolerant  of  direct  taxes,  will  not  impose  on  themselves  to  secure 
an  object  in  which  they  have  all  so  great  a  stake,  nor  does  any 
serious  obstacle  or  influence  seem  likely  to  oppose  their  will. 
There  is  in  no  state,  for  example,  any  dominant  ecclesiastical 
body  sufficiently  powerful  to  thwart  the  maxims  of  those  states 
men  who  maintain  that,  as  the  people  are  determined  to  govern 
themselves,  they  must  be  carefully  taught  and  fitted  for  self- 
government,  and  receive  secular  instruction  in  common  schools 
open  to  all.  The  Roman  Catholic  priests,  it  is  true,  in  the  state 
of  New  York,  where  there  are  now  11,000  schools  in  a  popula 
tion  of  two  millions  and  a  half,  have  made  some  vigorous  efforts 
to  get  the  exclusive  management  of  a  portion  of  the  school  funds 
into  their  own  hands,  and  one,  at  least,  of  the  Protestant  sects 
has  openly  avowed  its  sympathy  in  the  movement.  But  they 
have  failed  from  the  extreme  difficulty  of  organizing  a  combined 
effort,  where  the  leaders  of  a  great  variety  of  rival  denominations 
are  jealous  of  one  another  ;  and,  fortunately,  the  clergy  are  be 
coming  more  and  more  convinced  that,  where  the  education  of 
the  million  has  been  carried  farthest,  the  people  are  most  regular 
in  their  attendance  on  public  worship,  most  zealous  in  the  de 
fense  of  their  theological  opinions,  and  most  liberal  in  contribut 
ing  funds  for  the  support  of  their  pastors  and  the  building  of 
churches. 

H* 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

Leaving  Boston  for  the  South. — Railway  Stove. — Fall  of  Snow. — New  Haven, 
and  Visit  to  Professor  Silliman. — New  York. — Improvements  in  the 
City. — Croton  Waterworks. — Fountains. — Recent  Conflagration. — New 
Churches. — Trinity  Church. — News  from  Europe  of  Converts  to  Rome. — 
Reaction  against  Tractarians.  —  Electric  Telegraph,  its  Progress  in 
America. — Morse  and  Wheatstone. — 11,000  Schools  in  New  York  for 
Secular  Instruction. — Absence  of  Smoke. — Irish  Voters. — Nativism. 

Dec.  3.  1 845. — HAVING  resolved  to  devote  the  next  six  months 
of  my  stay  in  America  to  a  geological  exploration  of  those  parts 
of  the  country  which  I  had  not  yet  visited,  I  left  Boston  just  as 
the  cold  weather  was  setting  in,  to  spend  the  winter  in  the  south. 
The  thermometer  had  fallen  to  23°  F.,  and  on  our  way  to  the 
cars  we  saw  skaters  on  the  ice  in  the  common.  Soon  after  we 
started,  heavy  snow  began  to  fall,  but  in  spite  of  the  storm  we 
were  carried  to  Springfield,  100  miles,  in  five  hours.  We  passed 
a  luggage  train  with  twenty-two  loaded  cars,  rolling  past  us  in 
the  opposite  direction,  on  1 0  0  wheels,  including  those  of  the  engine 
and  tender.  In  the  English  railways,  the  passengers  often  suffer 
much  from  cold  in  winter.  Here,  the  stove  in  the  center  of  the 
long  omnibus  is  a  great  luxury,  and  I  saw  one  traveler  after  an 
other  leave  his  seat,  walk  up  to  it  and  warm  his  feet  on  the  fender. 
As  I  was  standing  there,  a  gentleman  gave  me  the  President's 
speech  to  read,  which,  by  means  of  a  railway  express,  had,  for 
the  first  time,  been  brought  from  Washington  to  Boston,  470 
miles,  in  one  day.  It  was  read  with  interest,  as  all  were 
speculating  on  the  probability  of  a  war  with  England  about 
Oregon.  While  I  was  indulging  my  thoughts  on  the  rapid 
communication  of  intelligence  by  newspapers  and  the  speed  and 
safety  of  railway  traveling,  a  fellow-passenger  interrupted  my 
pleasing  reveries  by  telling  me  I  was  standing  too  near  the  iron 
stove,  which  had  scorched  my  clothes  and  burnt  a  hole  in  my 
great  coat,  and  immediately  afterward  I  learnt  at  Springfield,  that 


CHAP.  XIII. ]        VISIT  TO  PROFESSOR  SILLIMAN.  179 

the  cars  on  the  line  between  that  town  and  Albany,  where  there 
is  only  one  track,  had  run  against  a  luggage  train  near  Chester, 
and  many  passengers  were  injured.  Some  say  that  two  were 
killed.  According  to  others,  one  of  the  trains  was  five  minutes 
before  its  time  ;  but  our  informant  took  my  thoughts  back  to 
England,  and  English  narratives  of  the  like  catastrophes  by  say 
ing,  "  It  has  been  ascertained  that  no  one  was  to  blame."  We 
had  no  reason  to  boast  of  our  speed  the  next  day,  for  we  were 
twelve  hours  in  going  sixty- two  miles  to  New  Haven.  The  delay 
was  caused  by  ice  on  the  rail,  and  by  our  having  to  wait  to  let 
the  New  York  train  pass  us,  there  being  only  one  line  of  rail. 
A  storm  in  the  Sound  had  occasioned  the  New  York  cars  to  be 
five  hours  behind  their  time.  We  saw  many  sleighs  dashing 
past  and  crossing  our  road.  It  was  late  before  we  reached  the 
hospitable  house  of  Professor  Silliman,  who  with  his  son  gave  me 
jnany  valuable  instructions  for  my  southern  tour.  Their  letters 
of  introduction,  however,  though  most  useful,  were  a  small  part 
of  the  service  they  did  me  both  in  this  tour  and  during  my  former 
visit  to  America.  Every  where,  even  in  the  states  most  remote 
from  New  England,  I  met  with  men  who,  having  been  the  pupils 
of  Professor  Silliman,  and  having  listened  to  his  lectures  when  at 
college,  had  invariably  imbibed  a  love  for  natural  history  and 
physical  science. 

In  the  morning,  when  we  embarked  in  the  steamer  for  New 
York,  I  was  amused  at  the  different  aspect  of  the  New  Haven 
scenery  from  that  which  I  remembered  in  the  autumn  of  1841. 
The  East  Rock  was  now  covered  with  snow,  all  but  the  bold 
precipice  of  columnar  basalt.  The  trees,  several  of  which,  espe 
cially  the  willows,  still  retained  many  of  their  leaves,  were  bent 
down  beneath  a  weight  of  ice.  I  never  saw  so  brilliant  a  spec 
tacle  of  the  kind,  for  every  bough  of  the  large  drooping  elms  and 
the  smallest  twigs  of  every  tree  and  shrub  were  hung  with  trans 
parent  icicles,  which,  in  the  bright  sunshine,  reflected  the  pris 
matic  colors  like  the  cut-glass  drops  of  a  chandelier.  As  we  sailed 
out  of  the  harbor,  which  was  crowded  with  vessels,  we  saw  all 
the  ropes  of  their  riggings  similarly  adorned  with  crystals  of  ice. 
A  stormy  voyage  of  nine  hours  carried  us  through  Long  Island 


180  CROTON  WATERWORKS.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

Sound,  a  distance  of  ninety  miles,  to  New  York.  It  is  only  three 
years  since  we  were  last  in  this  city,  yet  in  this  short  interval  we 
see  improvements  equaling  in  importance  the  increase  of  the 
population,  which  now  amounts  in  round  numbers  to  440,000  ; 
New  York  containing  361,000,  and  Brooklyn,  which  is  con 
nected  with  it  "by  a  ferry,  together  with  Williamsburg  79,000. 
Among  other  novelties  since  1841,  we  observe  with  pleasure  the 
new  fountains  in  the  midst  of  the  city  supplied  from  the  Croton 
waterworks,  finer  than  any  which  I  remember  to  have  seen  in 
the  center  of  a  city  since  I  was  last  in  Rome.  Two  of  them 
are  now,  in  spite  of  an  intense  frost,  throwing  up  columns  of  water 
more  than  thirty  feet  high,  one  opposite  the  City  Hall,  and  an 
other  in  Hudson  Square  ;  but  I  am  told  that  when  we  return  in 
the  summer  we  shall  see  many  others  in  action.  A  work  more 
akin  in  magnificence  to  the  ancient  and  modern  Roman  aqueducts 
has  not  been  achieved  in  our  times  ;  the  water  having  been, 
brought  from  the  Croton  river,  a  distance  of  about  forty  miles, 
at  the  expense  of  about  three  millions  sterling.  The  health  of 
the  city  is  said  to  have  already  gained  by  greater  cleanliness  and 
more  wholesome  water  for  drinking  ;  and  I  hear  from  an  eminent 
physician  that  statistical  tables  show  that  cases  of  infantine  cholera 
and  some  other  complaints  have  sensibly  lessened.  The  water  can 
be  carried  to  the  attics  of  every  house,  and  many  are  introducing 
baths  and  indulging  in  ornamental  fountains  in  private  gardens. 
The  rate  of  insurance  for  fire  has  been  lowered  ;  and  I  could  not 
help  reflecting  as  I  looked  at  the  moving  water,  at  a  season  when 
every  pond  is  covered  with  ice,  how  much  more  security  the  city 
must  now  enjoy  than  during  the  great  conflagration  in  the  winter 
of  1835,  when  there  was  such  a  want  of  water  to  supply  the 
engines.  Only  five  months  ago  (July  19th,  1845),  another 
destructive  fire  broke  out  near  the  battery,  and  when  it  was 
nearly  extinguished  by  the  aid  of  the  Croton  water,  a  tremendous 
explosion  of  saltpeter  killed  many  of  the  firemen,  and  scattered 
the  burning  materials  to  great  distances,  igniting  houses  in  every 
direction.  A  belief  that  more  gunpowder  still  remained  imex- 
ploded  checked  for  a  time  the  approach  of  the  firemen,  so  tnat  a 
large  area  was  laid  waste,  and  even  now  some  of  the  ruins  are 


CHAP.  XIII.]  NEW  CHURCHES.  181 

smoking,  there  being  a  smoldering  heat  in  cellars  filled  with 
"dry  goods."  When  the  citizens  of  London  rejected  the  splendid 
plan  which  Sir  Christopher  Wren  proposed  for  its  restoration,  he 
declared  that  they  had  not  deserved  a  fire,  but  the  New  Yorkers 
seem  to  have  taken  full  advantage  of  the  late  catastrophe.  As 
it  was  the  business  part  of  the  city  which  the  flames  laid  in 
ruins,  we  could  not  expect  much  display  of  ornamental  architec 
ture  ;  but  already,  before  the  ashes  have  done  smoking,  we  see 
entire  streets  of  substantial  houses  which  have  risen  to  their  full 
height,  and  the  ground  has  been  raised  five  feet  higher  than 
formerly  above  the  river,  so  a»  to  secure  it  from  inundations, 
which  has  so  enhanced  its  value,  that  many  of  the  sites  alone 
have  sold  for  prices  equal  to  the  value  of  the  buildings  which 
once  covered  them.  Among  the  new  edifices,  we  were  shown 
some  which  are  fire-proof.  Unfortunately,  many  a  fine  tree  has 
been  burned,  and  they  are  still  standing  without  their  bark,  but 
the  weeping  willows  bordering  the  river  on  the  Battery  have 
escaped  unsinged. 

Among  the  new  features  of  the  city  we  see  several  fine  church 
es,  some  built  from  their  foundations,  others  finished  since  1841. 
The  wooden  spires  of  several  are  elegant,  and  so  solid,  as  to  have 
all  the  outward  effect  of  stone.  The  two  most  conspicuous  of 
the  new  edifices  are  Episcopalian,  Trinity  and  Grace  Church. 
The  cost  of  the  former  has  been  chiefly  defrayed  by  funds  derived 
from  the  rent  of  houses  in  New  York,  bequeathed  long  since  to 
the  Episcopal  Church.  The  expense  is  said  to  have  equaled 
that  of  erecting  any  four  other  churches  in  the  city.  It  is  entire 
ly  of  stone,  a  fine-grained  sandstone  of  an  agreeable  light-brown 
tint.  The  top  of  the  steeple  is  289  feet  from  the  ground.  The 
effect  of  the  Gothic  architecture  is  very  fine,  and  the  Episcopa 
lians  may  now  boast  that  of  all  the  ecclesiastical  edifices  of  this 
continent,  they  have  erected  the  most  beautiful.  Its  position  is 
admirably  chosen,  as  it  forms  a  prominent  feature  in  Broadway, 
the  principal  street,  and  in  another  direction  looks  down  Wall- 
street,  the  great  center  of  city  business.  It  is  therefore  seen 
from  great  distances  in  this  atmosphere,  so  beautifully  clear  even 
at  this  season,  when  every  stove  is  lighted,  and  when  the  ther- 


182  TRINITY  CHURCH.  [Cmu>.  XIII. 

mometer  has  fallen  twenty  degrees  below  the  freezing  point. 
Where  there  is  so  much  bright  sunshine  and  no  smoke,  an  archi 
tect  may  well  be  inspired  with  ambition,  conscious  that  the  effect 
of  every  pillar  and  other  ornament  will  be  fully  brought  out  with 
their  true  lights  and  shades.  The  style  of  the  exterior  of  Trinity 
Church  reminds  us  of  some  of  our  old  Gothic  churches  in  Lin 
colnshire  and  Northamptonshire.  The  interior  is  in  equally  good 
taste,  the  middle  aisle  sixty-five  feet  high,  but  the  clustered 
columns  will  not  have  so  stately  an  appearance,  nor  display 
their  true  proportions  when  the  wooden  pews  have  been  intro 
duced  round  their  base.  An  attempt  was  made  to  dispense 
with  these ;  but  the  measure  could  not  be  carried ;  in  fact,  much 
as  we  may  admire  the  architectural  beauty  of  such  a  cathedral, 
one  can  not  but  feel  that  such  edifices  were  planned  by  the 
genius  of  other  ages,  and  adapted  to  a  different  form  of  worship. 
When  the  forty-five  windows  of  painted  glass  are  finished,  and 
the  white-robed  choristers  are  singing  the  Cathedral  service,  to 
be  performed  here  daily,  and  when  the  noble  organ  peals  forth 
its  swelling  notes  to  the  arched  roof,  the  whole  service  will 
remind  us  of  the  days  of  Romanism,  rather  than  seem  suitable 
to  the  wants  of  a  Protestant  congregation.  It  is  not  the  form 
of  building  best  fitted  for  instructing  a  large  audience.  To  make 
the  whole  in  keeping,  we  ought  to  throw  down  the  pews,  and  let 
processions  of  priests  in  their  robes  of  crimson,  embroidered  with 
gold,  preceded  by  boys  swinging  censers,  and  followed  by  a  crowd 
of  admiring  devotees,  sweep  through  the  spacious  nave. 

That  the  whole  pomp  and  splendor  of  the  ancient  ceremonial 
will  gradually  be  restored,  with  no  small  portion  of  its  kindred 
dogmas,  is  a  speculation  in  which  some  are  said  to  be  actually 
indulging  their  thoughts,  and  is  by  no  means  so  visionary  an  idea 
as  half  a  century  ago  it  might  have  been  thought.  In  the  dio 
cese  of  New  York,  the  party  which  has  adopted  the  views  com 
monly  called  Puseyite,  appears  to  have  gone  greater  lengths 
than  in  any  part  of  England.  The  newspapers  published  in 
various  parts  of  the  Union  bear  testimony  to  a  wide  extension  of 
the  like  movement.  We  read,  for  example,  a  statement  of  a 
bishop  who  has  ordered  the  revolving  reading-desk  of  a  curate  to 


CHAP.  XIII.]  CONVERTS  TO  ROME.  183 

be  nailed  to  the  wall,  that  he  might  be  unable  to  turn  with  it 
toward  the  altar.  The  offending  clergyman  has  resigned  for  the 
sake  of  peace,  and  part  of  his  congregation  sympathizing  in  his 
views  have  raised  for  him  a  sum  of  6000  dollars.  In  another 
paper  I  see  a  letter  of  remonstrance  from  a  bishop  to  an  Episco 
pal  clergyman,  for  attending  vespers  in  a  Romanist  church,  and 
for  crossing  himself  with  holy  water  as  he  entered.  The  epistle 
finishes  with  an  inquiry  if  it  be  true  that  he  had  purchased 
several  copies  of  the  Ursuline  Manual  for  young  persons.  The 
clergyman,  in  reply,  complains  of  this  petty  and  annoying  inqui 
sition  into  his  private  affairs,  openly  avows  that  he  is  earnestly 
examining  into  the  history,  character,  claims,  doctrines,  and 
usages  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  and  desirous  of  becoming  practi 
cally  acquainted  with  their  forms  of  worship — that  when  present 
for  this  purpose  he  had  thought  it  right  to  conform  to  the  usage 
of  the  congregation,  &c. 

It  would  be  easy  to  multiply  anecdotes,  and  advert  to  contro 
versial  pamphlets,  with  which  the  press  is  teeming,  in  proof  of 
the  lively  interest  now  taken  in  similar  ecclesiastical  questions, 
so  that  the  reader  may  conceive  the  sensation  just  created  here 
by  a  piece  of  intelligence  which  reached  New  York  the  very  day 
of  our  arrival,  and  is  now  going  the  round  of  the  newspapers, 
namely,  the  conversion  to  the  Romish  -Church  of  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Newman,  of  Oxford.  Some  of  his  greatest  admirers  are  put  to 
confusion  ;  others  are  rejoicing  in  the  hope  that  the  event  may 
prove  a  warning  to  many  who  have  departed  from  the  spirit  of 
the  Reformation  ;  and  a  third  party,  who  gave  no  credit  for  sin 
cerity  to  the  leaders  of  a  movement  which  they  regarded  as 
retrograde,  arid  who  still  suspect  that  they  who  have  joined  in  it 
here  are  actuated  by  worldly  motives,  are  confessing  that  they 
did  injustice  to  the  great  Oxford  tractarian.  One  of  them  re 
marked  to  me,  "  We  are  often  told  from  the  pulpit  here  that  we 
live  in  an  age  of  skepticism,  and  that  it  is  the  tendency  of  our 
times  to  believe  too  little  rather  than  too  much ;  and  yet  Protest 
ants  of  superior  talent  are  now  ready  to  make  these  great  sacri 
fices  for  the  sake  of  returning  to  the  faith  of  Rome  !"  I  might 
have  replied,  that  reaction  seems  to  be  almost  as  much  a  princi- 


184  THE  ELECTRIC  TELEGRAPH.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

pie  of  the  moral  as  of  the  material  world,  and  that  we  know, 
from  the  posthumous  writings  of  one  who  had  lived  on  intimate 
terms  with  the  originators  of  the  Tractarian  movement  in  Oxford, 
that  a  recoil  from  doubts  derived  from  the  study  of  the  German 
rationalists,  led  directly  to  their  departure  in  an  opposite  direc 
tion.  "  They  flung  themselves,"  says  Blanco  White,  writing  in 
1837,  "on  a  phantom  which  they  called  Church.  Their  plan 
was  to  stop  all  inquiry,"  and  "  to  restore  popery,  excluding  the 
pope."*  Meanwhile,  the  attempt  to  revive  the  credulity  of  the 
middle  ages,  and  to  resuscitate  a  belief  in  all  the  miracles  of 
mediaeval  saints,  has  produced,  as  might  naturally  have  been 
expected,  another  reaction,  giving  strength  to  a  party  called  the 
anti-supernaturalists,  who  entirely  reject  all  the  historical  evi 
dence  in  favor  of  the  Scripture  miracles.  Their  leader  in  New 
England,  Mr.  Theodore  Parker,  is  the  author  of  a  work  of  great 
erudition,  originality,  and  earnestness  (lately  reprinted  in  England), 
in  which,  while  retaining  a  belief  in  the  Divine  origin  of  Chris 
tianity,  and  the  binding  nature  of  its  moral  code,  he  abandons  the 
greater  part  of  the  evidences  on  which  its  truth  has  hitherto  been 
considered  to  repose.  I  heard  this  author,  during  my  late  stay 
in  Boston,  preach  to  a  congregation  respectable  for  its  numbers 
and  station. 

Next  to  the  new  churches  and  fountains,  the  most  striking 
change  observable  in  the  streets  of  New  York  since  1841,  is  the 
introduction  of  the  electric  telegraph,  the  posts  of  which,  about 
30  feet  high  and  100  yards  apart,  traverse  Broadway,  and  are 
certainly  not  ornamental.  Occasionally,  where  the  trees  interfere, 
the  wires  are  made  to  cross  the  street  diagonally.  The  success 
ful  exertions  made  to  render  this  mode  of  communication  popular, 
and  so  to  cheapen  it  as  to  bring  the  advantages  of  it  within  the 
reach  of  the  largest  possible  number  of  merchants,  newspaper 
editors,  and  private  individuals,  is  characteristic  of  the  country. 
There  is  a  general  desire  evinced  of  overcoming  space,  which 
seems  to  inspire  all  their  exertions  for  extending  and  improving 
railways,  lines  of  steam  navigation,  and  these  telegraphs.  Agri 
culturists  and  mercantile  men  in  remote  places,  are  eager  to  know 
*  Life  of  J.  Blanco  White,  vol.  ii.  p.  355,  and  vol.  iii.  p.  106. 


CHAP.  XIII.]  THE  ELECTRIC  TELEGRAPH.  185 

every  where,  on  the  very  day  of  the  arrival  of  an  Atlantic  mail 
steamer,  the  prices  of  grain,  cotton,  and  other  articles  in  the  Euro 
pean  markets,  so  that  they  may  speculate  on  equal  terms  with  the 
citizens  of  Boston  and  New  York.  The  politician,  who  is  am 
bitious,  not  only  of  retaining  all  the  states  of  the  Union  in  one 
powerful  confederation,  but  of  comprising  the  whole  continent 
under  one  empire,  hails  the  new  invention  with  delight,  and 
foresees  at  once  its  important  consequences.  Mr.  Winthrop  well 
knew  the  temper  of  the  people  whom  he  addressed,  when  he 
congratulated  a  large  meeting,  that  they  might  now  send  intelli 
gence  from  one  end  of  the  Union  to  the  other  with  the  rapidity 
of  thought,  and  that  they  had  realized  the  promise  of  the  King 
of  the  Fairies,  that  he  would  "put  a  girdle  round  about  the  earth 
in  forty  minutes."  Already  many  paragraphs  in  the  newspapers 
are  headed,  "  Received  by  lightning,  printed  by  steam,"  and  all 
seem  heartily  to  welcome  the  discovery  as  an  instrument  of  prog 
ress.  When  promoting  such  works,  they  may  exclaim,  without 
boastfulness — 

"  These  are  imperial  arts,  and  worthy  kings." 

After  my  return  from  America,  I  learned  that  the  length  of 
line  completed  in  1846,  amounted  to  above  1600  miles,  and  in 
1848  there  were  more  than  5000  miles  of  wire  laid  down.  In 
that  year  one  of  my  English  friends  sent  a  message  by  tele 
graph  to  Liverpool,  in  September,  which  reached  Boston  by 
mail  steamer,  via  Halifax,  in  twelve  days,  and  was  sent  on  im 
mediately  by  electric  telegraph  to  New  Orleans,  in  one  day,  the 
answer  returning  to  Boston  the  day  after.  Three  days  were 
then  lost  in  waiting  for  the  steam-packet,  which  conveyed  the 
message  back  to  England  in  twelve  days  ;  "so  that  the  reply 
reached  London  on  the  twenty-ninth  day  from  the  sending  of  the 
question,  the  whole  distance  being  more  than  10,000  miles,  which 
had  been  traversed  at  an  average  rate  exceeding  350  miles  a  day. 

It  is  satisfactory  to  learn  that  the  telegraph,  although  so  often 
passing  through  a  wild  country,  in  some  places  anticipating  even 
the  railway,  seems  never  yet  to  have  been  injured  by  the  lovers 
of  mischief.  The  wires  have  also  been  often  struck  by  light- 


186  THE  ELECTRIC  TELEGRAPH.  [CHAP.  XIII 

ning,  so  frequent  and  vivid  in  this  climate,  without  serious  de 
rangement  of  the  delicate  machinery.  The  telegraph  generally 
in  use  is  the  patent  of  Mr.  Morse,  whose  invention  combines  the 
power  of  printing  a  message  simultaneously  with  its  transmis 
sion.  As  the  magnetic  force  becomes  extremely  feeble  when 
conducted  through  a  great  length  of  wire,  Morse  employs  it  sim 
ply  to  make  a  needle  vibrate,  and  so  open  and  close  the  galvanic 
circuit  placed  in  each  office,  where  a  local  battery  is  set  in  mo 
tion,  which  works  the  printing  machine.  The  long  wires, 
therefore,  may  be  compared  to  slender  trains  of  gunpowder, 
which  are  made  to  fire  a  distant  cannon  or  mine.  It  is  not  the 
battery  in  Philadelphia  which  works  the  instrument  in  Wash 
ington,  but  a  battery  in  the  Washington  office.  This  contrivance 
is  obviously  nothing  more  than  a  new  adaptation  of  the  method 
specified  by  Mr.  Wheatstone,  in  his  patent  of  June,  1837,  for 
ringing  an  alarum  bell  in  each  station  by  means  of  a  local  bat 
tery,  of  which  I  saw  him  exhibit  experiments  in  1837. 

In  September  of  the  same  year  Mr.  Morse  invented  an  in 
genious  mode  of  printing  messages,  by  causing  an  endless  scroll  of 
paper  to  roll  off  one  cylinder  on  to  another  by  means  of  clock 
work,  the  paper  being  made  to  pass  under  a  steel  pen,  which  is 
moved  by  electro-magnetism. 

An  agent  of  Mr.  Morse  explained  to  me  the  manner  in  which 
the  steel  pen  was  made  to  indent  the  paper,  which  is  not  pierced, 
but  appears  as  if  it  had  been  pressed  on  by  a  blunted  point,  the 
under  surface  being  raised  as  in  books  printed  for  the  blind.  If 
the  contact  of  the  pen  be  continued  instead  of  making  a  dot,  it 
produces  a  short  or  a  long  line,  according  to  the  time  of  contact. 
The  following  is  a  specimen  : — 

TheElectroMag     netic 

Telegraph. 

In  the  latest  improvements  of  the  telegraph  in  England,  the 
magnetic  force  has  been  so  multiplied  by  means  of  several  thou 
sand  coils  of  wire,  that  they  can  send  it  direct,  so  as  to  move  the 


CHAP,  XIII.]  SCHOOLS  IN  NEW  YORK.  187 

needle  at  great  distances  without  the  aid  of  local  batteries.  The 
use,  however,  of  this  instrument  has  been  comparatively  small  in 
Great  Britain,  the  cost  of  messages  being  four  times  as  great  as 
in  the  United  States. 

The  population  of  the  State  of  New  York  amounts,  in  the 
present  year  (1845)  to  2,604,495  souls.  Of  this  number  as 
we  learn  by  the  report  of  the  government  inspector  of  schools,  no 
less  than  807,200  children,  forming  almost  one-third  of  the  in 
habitants,  have  received  the  benefit  of  instruction  either  for  the 
whole  or  part  of  the  year.  Of  these,  31,240  attended  private 
schools,  and  742,433  the  common  or  public  schools  of  the  state. 
We  are  also  informed  in  the  same  official  document,  that  the 
number  of  public  schools  is  now  11,003.  The  whole  amount 
of  money  received  by  the  school  trustees  during  the  year  for 
teachers'  wages,  and  district  libraries,  was  1,191,697  dollars, 
equal  to  about  250,000/.  This  sum  has  been  raised  chiefly  by 
rates,  and  about  one-third  of  it  from  the  revenue  of  the  school 
fund,  which  produces  a  yearly  income  of  375,387  dollars.  The 
teachers  in  the  common  schools,  both  male  and  female,  are 
boarded  at  the  public  expense,  arid,  in  addition  to  their  board, 
receive  the  following  salaries  : — Male  teachers,  during  the  winter 
term,  1 4  dollars,  1 6  cents  ;  and  during  the  summer  term,  1 5 
dollars,  77  cents  per  month,  equal  to  about  5Ql.  a  year.  Female 
teachers,  7  dollars,  37  cents  in  the  winter  term,  and  6  dollars, 
2  cents  in  the  summer  term.  In  some  counties,  however,  the 
average  is  stated  to  be  as  high  as  20,  or  even  26  dollars  per 
month  for  the  male  teachers,  and  from  9  to  1 1  for  the  female. 
There  are  also  district  libraries  in  connection  with  most  of  the 
schools. 

All  these  11,000  schools  have  been  organized  on  what  has 
been  styled  in  England,  even  by  respectable  members  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  the  infidel  or  godless  plan,  which  generally 
means  nothing  more  than  that  they  are  not  under  the  manage 
ment  of  the  clergy.  The  Roman  Catholic  bishops  and  priests 
command  a  vast  number  of  votes  at  the  elections  in  New  York, 
yet  they  failed,  in  1842,  to  get  into  their  exclusive  control  that 
part  of  the  public  school  money  which  might  fairly  be  considered 


188  SECULAR  EDUCATION.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

as  applicable  to  the  teaching  of  children  of  their  own  denomina 
tion.  Their  efforts,  however,  though  fortunately  defeated,  were 
attended  by  some  beneficial  results.  It  is  obviously  the  duty  of 
every  government  which  establishes  a  national  system  of  secular 
education,  to  see  that  no  books  are  used  in  the  schools,  containing 
sectarian  views,  or  in  which  the  peculiar  opinions  of  any  sect 
are  treated  with  marked  contempt.  The  Catholics  complained 
that  some  of  the  works  put  into  the  hands  of  children,  especially 
those  relating  to  English  history,  were  written  with  a  strong 
Protestant  bias,  and  that,  while  the  superstitions  of  popery  and 
the  bigotry  of  Bloody  Mary  were  pointedly  dwelt  upon,  the  per 
secutions  endured  by  Romanists  at  the  hands  of  Protestant  rulers 
were  overlooked,  or  slightly  glanced  at.  The  expunging  of  such 
passages,  both  in  the  State  of  New  York  and  in  New  England, 
must  have  a  wholesome  tendency  to  lessen  sectarian  bitterness, 
which,  if  imbibed  at  an  early  age,  is  so  difficult  to  eradicate  ; 
and  children  thus  educated  will  grow  up  less  prejudiced,  and 
more  truly  Christian  in  spirit,  than  if  the  Romish  or  any  other 
clergy  had  been  permitted  to  obtain  the  sole  arid  separate  train 
ing  of  their  minds. 

I  have  often  mentioned  the  absence  of  smoke  as  a  striking  and 
enviable  peculiarity  of  the  Atlantic  cities.  For  my  own  part,  I 
never  found  the  heat  of  a  well-managed  stove  oppressive,  when 
vessels  of  water  were  placed  over  it  for  moistening  the  air  by 
free  evaporation  ;  and  the  anthracite  coal  burns  brightly  in  open 
grates.  Even  in  a  moral  point  of  view,  I  regard  freedom  from 
smoke  as  a  positive  national  gain,  for  it  causes  the  richer  and 
more  educated  inhabitants  to  reside  in  cities  by  the  side  of  their 
poorer  neighbors  during  a  larger  part  of  the  year,  which  they 
would  not  do  if  the  air  and  the  houses  were  as  much  soiled  by 
smoke  and  soot  as  Manchester,  Birmingham,  Leeds,  or  Sheffield. 
Here  the  dress  and  furniture  last  longer  and  look  less  dingy, 
flowers  and  shrubs  can  be  cultivated  in  town  gardens,  and  all 
who  can  afford  to  move  are  not  driven  into  the  country  or  some 
distant  suburb.  The  formation  of  libraries  and  scientific  and 
literary  institutions,  museums,  and  lectures,  and  the  daily  inter 
course  between  the  different  orders  of  society — in  a  word,  all 


CHAP.  XIII.]  IRISH  VOTERS.  189 


that  can  advance  and  refine  the  mind  and  taste  of  a  great  popu 
lation,  are  facilitated  by  this  contact  of  the  rich  and  poor.  In 
addition,  therefore,  to  the  importance  given  to  the  rniddb  and 
lower  classes  by  the  political  institutions  of  America,  I  can  not 
but  think  it  was  a  fortunate  geological  arrangement  for  the  civil 
ization  of  the  cities  first  founded  on  this  continent,  that  the  an- 
thracitic  coal-fie]ds  were  all  placed  on  the  eastern  side  of  the 
Alleghany  mountains,  and  all  the  bituminous  coal-fields  on  their 
western  side. 

One  day,  when  we  were  dining  at  the  great  table  of  the  Carl- 
ton  Hotel,  one  of  the  largest  and  most  fashionable  establishments 
of  the  kind  in  New  York,  we  were  informed  by  an  American 
friend,  that  a  young  man  and  woman  sitting  opposite  to  us  were 
well  known  to  him  as  work-people  from  a  factory  near  Boston. 
They  scarcely  spoke  a  word,  but  were  conforming  carefully  to 
the  conventional  manners  of  those  around  them. 

Before  we  left  New  York,  we  witnessed  an  unforeseen  effect  of 
the  abundance  of  waste  water  recently  poured  into  the  city  through 
the  new  Croton  aqueduct.  In  the  lower  streets  near  the  river 
the  water  in  the  open  gutters  had  frozen  in  the  course  of  the 
night,  and,  next  morning,  the  usual  channels  being  blocked  up 
with  ice,  a  stream  poured  down  the  middle  of  the  street,  and  was 
in  its  turn  frozen  there,  so  that  when  I  returned  one  night  from 
a  party,  I  wished  I  had  been  provided  with  skates,  so  continuous 
was  the  sheet  of  ice.  Then  came  a  thaw,  and  the  water  of  the 
melted  ice  poured  into  the  lower  stories  of  many  houses.  The 
authorities  are  taking  active  measures  to  provide  in  future  against 
the  recurrence  of  this  evil. 

I  suggested  to  one  of  my  friends  here  that  they  had  omitted, 
among  their  numerous  improvements,  to  exclude  the  pigs  from 
the  streets.  "It  is  not  possible,"  said  he,  "  for  they  all  have 
votes  ;  I  mean  their  Irish  owners  have,  and  they  turn  the  scale 
in  the  elections  for  mayor  and  other  city  officers.  If  we  must 
have  a  war,"  he  added,  "  about  Oregon,  it  will  at  least  be  at 
tended  with  one  blessing — the  stopping  of  this  incessant  influx 
of  hordes  of  ignorant  adventurers,  who  pour  in  and  bear  down 
our  native  population.  Whether  they  call  themselves  '  the  true 


190  NATIVISM.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

sons  of  Erin,'  or  the  '  noble  sons  of  Germany,'  they  are  the  dupes 
and  tools  of  our  demagogues."  He  then  told  me  that  in  the  last 
presidential  election  he  had  been  an  inspector,  and  had  rejected 
many  fraudulent  votes  of  newly  arrived  emigrants,  brought  to  the 
poll  without  letters  of  naturalization,  and  he  had  no  doubt  that 
some  other  inspectors  had  been  less  scrupulous  when  the  voters 
were  of  their  own  political  party.  "  But  for  the  foreign  vote," 
he  affirmed,  "  Clay  would  have  been  elected."  "  Have  you  then 
joined  the  native  American  party  ?"  "  No  ;  because,  by  sepa 
rating  from  the  Whigs,  they  have  weakened  the  good  cause,  and 
nativism  being  chiefly  anti-Irish,  too  often  degenerates  into  relig 
ious  bigotry',  or  into  a  mere  anti-popery  faction." 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

New  York  to  Philadelphia. — Scenery  in  New  Jersey. — War  about  Oregon, 
— Protectionist  Theories. — Income  Tax  and  Repudiation. — Recrimina 
tions  against  British  Aggrandizement. — Irish  Quarter  and  fraudulent 
Votes. — Washington. — Congress  and  Annexation  of  Texas. — General 
Cass  for  War. — Winthrop  for  Arbitration. — Inflated  Eloquence. — Su 
preme  Court. — Slavery  in  District  of  Columbia. — Museum,  Collection  of 
Corals. — Sculpture  from  Palenque. — Conversations  with  Mr.  Fox. — A 
Residence  at  Washington  not  favorable  to  a  just  Estimate  of  the  United 
States. — False  Position  of  Foreign  Diplomatists. 

Dec.  9,  1845. — LEFT  New  York  for  Philadelphia  by  railway. 
When  crossing  the  ferry  to  New  Jersey,  saw  Long  Island  and 
Staten  Island  covered  with  snow.  Between  New  York  and  New 
ark,  New  Jersey,  there  is  a  deep  cutting  through  a  basaltic  01 
greenstone  rock,  a  continuation  of  the  mass  which  forms  the 
columnar  precipices,  called  the  Palisades,  on  the  Hudson  river, 
above  New  York.  From  the  jagged  face  of  the  cliffs  in  this  cut-, 
ting,  were  hanging  some  of  the  largest  icicles  I  ever  beheld,  re 
minding  me  of  huge  stalactites  pendent  from  the  roofs  of  limestone 
caverns  in  Europe. 

In  New  Jersey  we  passed  over  a  gently  undulating  surface  of 
country,  formed  of  red  marl  and  sandstone,  resembling  in  appear 
ance,  and  of  about  the  same  geological  age,  as  the  new  red  sand 
stone  (trias)  of  England.  The  soil  in  the  fields  is  of  a  similar 
red  color,  and  all  signs  of  recent  clearings,  such  as  the  stumps  of 
trees,  have  nearly  disappeared.  The  copses,  formed  of  a  second 
growth  of  wood,  and  the  style  of  the  fences  round  the  fields,  gave 
an  English  aspect  to  the  country.  We  went  by  Newark,  Eliza- 
bethtown,  Princeton,  Trenton,  Bordentown,  and  Burlington.  In 
some  of  these  places,  as  at  Elizabethtown,  houses  and  churches 
have  grown  up  round  the  railway  ;  and  we  passed  through  the 
middle  of  Burlington,  a  great  source  of  convenience  to  the  natives, 
and  of  amusement  to  the  passengers,  but  implying  a  slow  rate  of 
traveling.  Hereafter,  to  enable  express  trains  to  go  at  full  speed 
from  north  to  south,  there  must  be  branch  lines  outside  the  towns. 


192  WAR  ABOUT  OREGON,  [CHAP.  XIV. 

As  we  passed  Burlington,  a  fellow  passenger  told  us  that  in  an 
Episcopalian  college  established  there,  called  St.  Mary's  Hall,  were 
a  hundred  young  girls,  whom  he  called  "  the  holy  innocents,"  as 
sembled  from  every  part  of  the  Union.  Eighteen  of  them  had. 
in  September  last,  taken  their  degrees  in  arts,  receiving,  from  the 
hands  of  the  Bishop  of  New  Jersey,  diplomas,  headed  by  an  en 
graving  of  the  Holy  Virgin  and  Child,  and  issued  "  in  the  name 
of  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost."  The  session  had  ended 
with  the  ceremony  of  laying  and  consecrating  the  corner-stone  of 
"the  chapel  of  the  Holy  Innocents  for  the  use  of  the  scholars  of 
St.  Mary's  Hall." 

Whether  we  took  up  a  newspaper,  or  listened  to  conversation 
in  the  cars,  we  found  that  the  Oregon  question,  and  a  rupture 
with  England,  were  the  all-engrossing  topic  of  political  specula 
tion.  The  democratic  party  are  evidently  intoxicated  with  their 
success  in  having  achieved  the  annexation  of  Texas,  and  are  bent 
on  future  schemes  of  territorial  aggrandizement.  Some  talk  of 
gaining  the  whole  of  Oregon,  others  all  Mexico.  I  heard  one 
fellow-traveler  say  modestly,  "  We  are  going  on  too  fast ;  but 
Mexico  must  in  time  be  ours."  On  arriving  at  Philadelphia.  I 
found  some  of  the  daily  journals  written  in  a  tone  well-fitted  to 
create  a  war-panic,  counting  on  the  aid  of  France  in  the  event 
of  a  struggle  with  Great  Britain  ;  boasting  that  if  all  the  eastern 
cities  were  laid  in  ashes  by  an  English  fleet,  they  would  rebuild 
them  in  five  years,  and  extinguish  all  the  debts  caused  by  the 
war  in  thirty  years  ;  whereas  England,  borrowing  as  in  the  last 
war  many  hundred  millions  sterling,  must  become  bankrupt  or 
permanently  crippled  with  taxation.  I  asked  an  acquaintance, 
whether  the  editor  of  such  articles  secretly  wished  for  war,  or 
wanted  to  frighten  his  readers  into  a  pacific  policy.  "  He  has 
lately  gone  over,"  said  he,  "  to  the  protectionist  party.  Having 
made  large  purchases  of  shares  in  an  iron  company,  and  fearing 
that,  should  peace  continue,  the  free-traders  would  lower  the 
tariff,  he  patriotically  hopes  for  a  war  with  England  to  enable 
him  to  make  a  fortune.  He  is  one  of  those  philanthropic  monop 
olists  who  would  have  joined  in  a  toast  given  some  years  ago  at 
a  public  dinner  by  one  of  our  merchants,  <  May  the  wants  of  all 


CHAP.  XIV  ]  INCOME  TAX.  193 

nations  increase,  and  may  they  be  supplied  by  Pennsylvania.' " 
"  But  will  his  war  dreams  be  realized,  think  you  ?"  "  Probably 
•Hiot ;  yet  the  mere  anticipation  of  such  a  contingency  is  doing- 
mischief,  checking  commercial  enterprise,  causing  our  state  bonds 
to  fall  in  value,  and  awakening  evil  passions.  You  will  scarcely 
believe  that  I  have  heard  men  of  respectable  standing  in  the  world 
declare,  that  if  a  war  breaks  out,  we  shall  at  least  be  able  to 
sponge  out  our  state  debt !" 

I  found  that  the  income  tax  laid  on  to  pay  the  interest  of  this 
debt,  is  weighing  heavily  on  Pennsylvania,  and  many  a  citizen  is 
casting  a  wistful  glance  across  the  Delaware,  at  the  untaxed 
fields  and  mansions  of  New  Jersey.  Some  manage  to  evade  half 
their  burdens  by  taking  houses  in  that  state,  and  resorting  in  the 
winter  season  to  Philadelphia  for  the  sake  of  society.  One  of  the 
Philadelphians  assured  me,  that  he  and  others  paid  sixteen  per 
cent,  "on  their  income  for  state  taxes  ;  and  after  honestly  respond 
ing  to  all  the  inquisitorial  demands  of  the  collectors,  they  had  the 
mortification  of  thinking  that  men  who  are  less  conscientious 
escape  half  the  impost.  "  Capital,"  he  said,  « is  deserting  this 
city,  and  some  thriving  store-keepers,  whom  you  knew  here  in 
1842,  have  transferred  their  business  to  New  York.  In  your 
'  Travels  in  America,'  you  were  far  too  indulgent  to  the  Petm- 
sylvanian  Whigs,  who  promoted  the  outlay  of  government  money 
on  public  works,  which  has  been  our  ruin.  The  wealthy  Ger 
man  farmers  and  democrats  opposed  that  expenditure  ;  and  it  is 
not  German  ignorance,  as  some  Whigs  pretend,  which  has  en 
tailed  debt  and  disgrace  on  this  state,  but  the  extravagance  of 
the  influential  merchants,  who  were  chiefly  Whigs.  You  see  by 
the  papers  that  the  county  of  Lancaster,  is  50,000  dollars  in  ar- 
rear  in  the  payment  of  state  taxes,  and  the  punishment  inflicted 
by  government  is  to  withhold  the  school-money  from  these  de 
faulters,  thereby  prolonging  the  evil,  if  it  be  ignorance  which  has 
dulled  their  moral  sense." 

The  reluctance  to  resort  to  coercive  measures,  on  the  part  of 

the  men  in  power,  for  fear  of  endangering  their  popularity,  is 

striking  ;   and  John  Bull  would  smile  at  a  circular  just  issued 

and  addressed  by  the  state  treasurer  to  counties,  some  of  which 

VOL,  i. — I 


194  BRITISH  AGGRANDIZ EMENT.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

are  three  years  in  arrear.  He  praises  others  for  their  cheerful 
promptness  in  bearing  their  fair  share  of  the  public  liabilities, 
and  exhorts  the  rest  to  follow  their  good  example,  for  the  honoj* 
arid  credit  of  the  Commonwealth.  The  necessity  of  compulsory 
measures  is  gently  hinted  at  as  a  possible  contingency,  should 
they  continue  to  be  defaulters.  As  a  proof,  however,  that  more 
cogent  methods  of  persuasion  are  sometimes  resorted  to,  I  see 
advertisements  of  the  sale  of  city  property  for  the  discharge  of 
taxes  ;  and  it  is  fair  to  presume,  that  patriotic  exhortations  have 
not  always  been  without  effect,  or  they  would  be  thought  too 
ridiculous  to  be  employed. 

I  observed  to  a  friend,  that  when  I  left  the  New  Englanders, 
they  were  decidedly  averse  to  war  about  Oregon.  "  Yes,"  he 
rejoined,  «  but  they  are  equally  against  free  trade  ;  whereas,  the 
people  in  the  West,  who  are  talking  so  big  about  fighting  for 
Oregon,  are  in  favor  of  a  low  tariff  and  more  trade  with  En- 

O          ' 

gland,  which  would  make  war  impossible.      Which  of  these  two, 
think  you,  is  practically  the  peace  party  ?" 

In  the  leading  articles  of  several  of  the  papers,  I  read  some 
spirited  recriminations  in  answer  to  English  censures  on  the 
annexation  of  Texas.  Its  independence,  they  say,  had  been 
acknowledged  by  Great  Britain,  and  its  inhabitants  had  volun 
tarily  joined  the  Union.  Some  journals  talk  of  following  "  the 
classical  example  of  the  mother-country,"  and  allude  to  the  con 
quest  of  Sinde,  and  the  intended  "  annexation  of  Borneo."  A 
passage  is  also  cited  from  a  recent  article  in  one  of  the  leading 
London  journals,  to  the  following  effect : — "  That  as  the  Punjab 
must  eventually  be  ours,  the  sooner  we  take  possession  of  it  the 
better,  and  the  less  blood  and  treasure  will  be  spent  in  saving 
from  anarchy  the  richest  part  of  India."  But  it  is  easier  thus  to 
recriminate  than  to  reply  to  the  admirable  protest  published  in 
the  beginning  of  the  present  year  (January,  1845),  by  a  con 
vention  of  delegates  from  various  and  opposite  political  parties  in 
Massachusetts,  which  set  forth,  in  strong  terms,  the  unjustifiable 
manner  in  which  Texas  was  originally  filched  from  Mexico,  and 
the  tendency  of  such  annexation  to  extend  and  uphold  slavery, 
and  "  probably  to  lead  to  a  Mexican  war." 


CHAP.  XIV.]  FRAUDULENT  VOTES.  195 

During  our  stay  in  Philadelphia,  we  heard  much  regret  ex 
pressed  at  the  establishment  of  what  is  called  here  an  Irish 
.quarter,  entailing,  for  the  first  time,  the  necessity  of  keeping  up 
a  more  expensive  police.  In  the  riots  of  May  6,  1844,  many 
lives  were  lost,  and  a  party  has  been  formed  of  native  Americans 
to  resist  what  they  call  "  the  papal  garrison."  Although  much 
sectarian  feeling,  mixed  with  the  prejudice  of  race,  may  have 
been  betrayed  against  the  Irish  Romanists,  I  find  it  impossible 
not  to  sympathize  with  the  indignation  cherished  here  in  regard 
to  the  interference  of  aliens  with  the  elections,  and  the  danger 
which  threatens  the  liberties  of  the  country  from  fraudulent  vot 
ing.  Originally  a  residence  of  five  years  was  required  to  confer 
the  electoral  franchise  on  a  new  settler,  and  the  time  did  not 
begin  to  count  till  after  a  regular  notification  of  his  intention  to 
settle  and  acquire  the  rights  of  citizenship,  accompanied  by  for 
swearing  his  allegiance  to  any  other  sovereignty.  The  federalists 
imprudently  extended  the  term  to  sixteen  years,  in  the  president 
ship  of  John  Adams,  which  excluded  more  than  half  of  the  popu 
lation  in  some  newly  peopled  districts.  The  original  term  of  five 
years  after  registration  was  again  restored  in  Jefferson's  president 
ship,  and  continued  till  the  contest  between  John  Quincy  Adarns 
and  Jackson,  when  Mr.  Buchanan  carried  his  proposition  that, 
instead  of  registration,  two  witnesses  might  depose  on  parole  that 
the  candidate  for  naturalization  had  resided  five  years.  This 
regulation  has  led  to  much  fraud  and  perjury  ;  and  cases  so 
flagrant  have  occurred,  that  judges  have  been  cashiered  for  con 
niving  at  them.  The  same  rules,  however,  are  not  binding  in 
all  state  elections,  for  in  Virginia,  at  present,  the  right  of  citizen 
ship  demands  a  residence  of  seven  years,  while  in  Michigan,  new 
comers  can  vote  two  years  after  their  arrival. 

How  many  of  the  stories  related  of  fraudulent  voting  may  be 
true,  I  can  not  pretend  to  decide  ;  but  I  was  amused  at  their 
number  and  variety.  It  came  out,  I  am  told,  in  evidence  on  a 
late  trial,  that  convicts  had  been  carried  to  the  poll  at  New  York, 
and  then  taken  back  to  prison  ;  and  that  the  dexterity  of  those 
who  manage  the  Irish  vote  often  consists  in  making  Paddy  believe 
that  he  is  really  entitled  to  the  franchise,  One  of  these  dupe? 


196  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

having  voted  several  times  over  for  one  candidate,  was  at  length 
objected  to,  and  observed  with  'naivete,  "  that  it  was  hard  that 
his  vote  should  at  last  be  challenged,  when  so  many  inspectors 
had  taken  it  before  that  same  day."  An  emigrant  ship  arrived 
at  Newcastle,  on  the  Delaware,  in  the  heat  of  an  election  for 
governor  ;  the  Irish  emigrants  were  asked  if  they  would  support 
the  democratic  candidate.  "  We  are  all  for  the  opposition,"  they 
replied  ;  and  the  ingenuity  of  the  canvasser  was  taxed  to  make 
them  comprehend  that  the  Ins  in  America,  corresponded  in  their 
politics  with  the  Outs  in  Great  Britain. 

Such  anecdotes  prove  indisputably  that  the  purity  of  the  elec 
tions  is  at  least  impeached,  and  it  must  also  be  borne  in  mind  that 
the  system  of  ballot  precludes  all  scrutiny  after  the  election  is  over. 

Dec.  13.  Washington. — Went  into  the  House  of  Represent 
atives  ;  the  front  seats  in  the  gallery  are  reserved  for  ladies.  We 
found  the  member  for  Connecticut,  Mr.  Rockwell,  on  his  legs, 
delivering  what  seemed  to  me  an  admirable  speech  against  the 
annexation  of  Texas,  especially  that  part  of  its  new  constitution 
which  prohibited  the  legislature  from  taking  steps  toward  the 
future  abolition  of  slavery.  Some  of  the  representatives  were 
talking,  others  writing,  none  listening.  The  question  was  evi 
dently  treated  as  one  gone  by — mere  matter  of  history,  which  the 
course  of  events  had  consigned  to  the  vault  of  all  the  Capulets. 
Nevertheless,  a  feeling  of  irritation  and  deep  disgust  is  pervading 
the  minds  of  the  anti-slavery  party  at  this  sudden  accession  of 
new  territory,  open  to  a  slave  population.  A  powerful  reaction 
has  begun  to  display  itself,  so  that  the  incorporation  of  Texas 
into  the  Union  may  eventually  be  attended  Math  consequences 
most  favorable  to  the  good  cause,  rousing  the  whole  north  to 
make  a  stand  against  the  future  extension  of  slavery.  Mr. 
Winthrop  has  hailed  this  more  hopeful  prospect  in  the  happiest 
strain  of  eloquence,  addressing  "  the  lone  star  of  Texas,"  as  it 
was  called,  in  the  words  of  Milton  : — 

';  Fairest  of  stars,  last  in  the  train  of  night, 
If  rather  thou  belong'st  not  to  the  dawn." 

Crossing  the  Rotunda,  we  passed  into  the  Senate,  and  heard 
General  Cass,  of  Michigan,  delivering  a  set  speech  on  the  Oregon 


CHAP.  XIV.]  ARBITRATION.  197 

question.  The  recent  acquisition  of  Texas,  which  we  had  heard 
condemned  in  the  other  house  as  a  foul  blot  on  their  national 
policy,  was  boasted  of  by  him  as  a  glorious  triumph  of  freedom. 
He  drew  an  animated  picture  of  the  aggrandizing  spirit  of  Great 
Britain  with  her  150  millions  of  subjects,  spoke  of  her  arrogance 
and  pride,  the  certainty  of  a  war,  if  they  wished  to  maintain 
their  just  rights,  and  the  necessity  of  an  immediate  armament. 

"Great  Britain,"  he  said,  "might  be  willing  to  submit  the 
Oregon  question  to  arbitration,  but  the  crowned  heads,  whom  she 
would  propose  as  arbiters,  would  not  be  impartial,  for  they  would 
cherish  anti-republican  feelings."  I  thought  the  style  of  this 
oration  better  than  its  spirit,  and  it  was  listened  to  with  atten 
tion  ;  but  in  spite  of  the  stirring  nature  of  the  theme,  none  of  the 
senators  betrayed  any  emotion. 

When  he  sat  down,  others  followed,  some  of  whom  read  ex 
tracts  from  the  recently  delivered  speeches  of  Sir  Robert  Peel 
and  Lord  John  Russell  on  the  Oregon  affair,  commenting  freely 
and  fairly  upon  them,  and  pointing  out  that  there  was  nothing 
in  the  tone  of  the  British  Government,  nor  in  the  nature  of  their 
demands,  which  closed  the  door  against  an  amicable  adjustment. 
I  came  away  from  this  debate  much  struck  with  the  singular 
posture  of  affairs  ;  for  the  executive  and  its  functionaries  seem  to 
be  doing  their  worst  to  inflame  popular-  passions,  while  the  legis 
lature,  chosen  by  universal  suffrage,  is  comparatively  calm,  and 
exhibits  that  sense  of  a  dangerous  responsibility,  which  a  presi 
dent  and  his  cabinet  might  rather  have  been  expected  to  display. 

In  reference  to  one  of  the  arguments  in  General  Cass's  speech, 
Mr.  Winthrop  soon  afterward  moved  in  the  House  of  Represent 
atives  (Dec.  19,  1845),  "That  arbitration  does  not  necessarily 
involve  a  reference  to  crowned  heads  ;  and  if  a  jealousy  of  such 
a  reference  is  entertained  in  any  quarter,  a  commission  of  able 
and  dispassionate  citizens,  either  from  the  two  countries  con 
cerned,  or  from  the  world  at  large,  offers  itself  as  an  obvious  and 
unobj  ectionable  alternative. ' ' 

A  similar  proposition  emanated  simultaneously,  and  without 
concert,  from  the  English  Cabinet,  showing  that  they  were 
regardless  of  precedents,  and  relied  on  the  justice  of  their  cause. 


198  RECRIMINATION.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

Although  it  was  declined,  the  mere  fact  of  a  great  nation  having 
waived  all  punctilious  etiquette,  and  offered  to  settle  a  point  at 
issue  by  referring  the  question  to  private  citizens  of  high  charac 
ter  and  learned  in  international  law,  proves  that  the  world  is 
advancing  in  civilization,  and  that  higher  principles  of  morality 
are  beginning  to  gain  ground  in  the  intercourse  between  nations. 
"  All  who  ought  to  govern,"  said  a  member  of  Congress  to  me, 
"  are  of  one  mind  as  to  Lord  Aberdeen's  overture ;  but  they  who 
do  govern  here,  will  never  submit  to  arbitration." 

The  Senate  consists  at  present  of  fifty-nine  members,  and  will 
soon  be  augmented  by  two  from  Texas  and  two  from  Iowa,  the 
Union  consisting  now  of  twenty-seven  states,  with  a  population 
of  about  twenty  millions. 

The  appearance  of  the  members  of  the  House  of  Representa 
tives  is  gentlemanlike,  although  I  doubt  not  that  the  scenes  of 
violence  and  want  of  decorum  described  by  many  travelers,  are 
correct  pictures  of  what  they  witnessed.  In  this  nation  of  read 
ers  they  are  so  sensitive  to  foreign  criticism,  that  amendment  may 
be  confidently  looked  for.  At  this  moment,  the  papers,  by  way 
of  retaliation,  are  amusing  their  readers  with  extracts  from  a 
debate  in  the  Canada  House  of  Assembly.  The  following  may 
serve  as  an  example  : — "  Our  Canadian  friends  occasionally  read 
us  a  lecture  on  courtesy  and  order,  we  therefore  cite  from  a  report 
of  their  legislative  proceedings,  what  we  presume  they  intend  as 
a  model  for  our  imitation.  Mr.  De  B.  appealed  to  the  chair  to 
stop  the  member  for  Quebec,  and  threatened  if  he  was  not  called 
to  order,  that  he  must  go  over  and  pull  his  nose  ;  at  which  Mr. 
A.  rejoined,  '  Come  and  do  it,  you  scoundrel !'  "  Another  exam 
ple  of  recrimination  that  I  have  lately  seen,  consisted  in  placing 
in  two  parallel  columns,  first  an  extract  from  the  leading  article 
of  the  London  Times,  rating  the  Americans  in  good  set  terms 
for  their  rudeness  to  each  other  in  debate,  and  coarse  abuse  of 
England  ;  arid,  secondly,  an  account  given  by  the  same  journal 
of  a  disorderly  discussion  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  an  Irish 
question,  in  which,  among  other  incidents,  a  young  member  of 
the  aristocracy  (intoxicated  let  us  hope)  rose  in  the  midst  of  the 
hubbub,  and  imitated  the  crowing  of  a  cock. 


CHAP.  XIV.]  INFLATED  ELOQUENCE.  199 


A  member  of  Congress,  who  frequented,  when  in  London,  the 
gallery  of  the  House  of  Commons,  tells  me  he  was  struck  with 
what  seemed  an  affectation  of  rusticity,  members  lolling  in  loung 
ing  attitudes  on  the  benches  with  their  hats  on,  speaking  with 
their  hands  thrust  into  their  breeches  pockets,  and  other  acts,  as 
if  in  defiance  of  restraint.  The  English  method  of  coughing 
down  a  troublesome  member  is  often  alluded  to  here,  and  has,  on 
one  occasion,  been  gravely  recommended  for  adoption,  as  a  par 
liamentary  usage  which  might  advantageously  be  imitated,  rather 
than  the  limitation  of  each  speaker  to  one  hour,  a  rule  now  in 
force,  which  has  too  often  the  effect  of  making  each  orator  think 
it  due  to  himself  to  occupy  the  house  for  his  full  term. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  burlesque  or  caricature  the  ambitious 
style  of  certain  members  of  Congress,  especially  some  who  have 
risen  from  humble  stations,  and  whose  schooling  has  been  in  the 
back-woods.  A  grave  report,  drawn  up  in  the  present  session 
by  a  member  for  Illinois,  as  chairman  of  the  Post-office  Commit 
tee,  may  serve  as  an  example.  After  speaking  of  the  American 
republic  as  "  the  infant  Hercules,"  and  the  extension  of  their 
imperial  dominion  over  the  "northern  continent  and  oriental 
seas,"  he  exclaims,  "  the  destiny  of  our  nation  has  now  become 
revealed,  and  great  events,  quickening  in  the  womb  of  time, 
reflect  their  clearly-defined  shadows  into  our  very  eye-balls. 

"  Oh.  why  does  a  cold  generation  frigidly  repel  ambrosial  gifts 
like  these,  or  sacrilegiously  hesitate  to  embrace  their  glowing  and 
resplendent  fate  ? 

"  Must  this  backward  pull  of  the  government  never  cease,  and 
the  nation  tug  forever  beneath  a  dead  weight,  which  trips  its 
heels  at  every  stride  ?" 

From  the  Senate  House  we  went  to  another  part  of  the  Capi 
tol,  to  hear  Mr.  Webster  plead  a  cause  before  the  Judges  of  the 
Supreme  Court.  These  judges  wear  black  gowns,  and  are,  1 
believe,  the  only  ones  in  the  United  States  who  have  a  costume. 
The  point  at  issue  was  most  clearly  stated,  namely,  whether  the 
city  of  New  York  had  a  legal  right  to  levy  a  tax  of  one  dollar 
on  every  passenger  entering  that  port,  who  had  never  before 
visited  any  port  of  the  Union.  The  number  of  emigrants  being 


200  WASHINGTON.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

great,  no  less  than  100,000  dollars  had  been  annually  raised  by 
this  impost,  the  money  being  applied  chiefly  as  an  hospital  fund. 
It  was  contended  that  the  Federal  Government  alone  had  the 
right  of  imposing  duties  on  commerce,  in  which  light  this  passen 
ger  tribute  ought  to  be  viewed.  The  Court,  however,  ruled 
otherwise. 

It  was  pointed  out  to  me,  as  a  remarkable  proof  of  the  ascend 
ency  of  the  democratic  party  in  the  Federal  Government  for 
many  years  past,  that  only  one  of  all  the  judges  now  on  the  bench 
had  been  nominated  by  the  Whigs. 

One  day,  as  we  were  walking  down  Pennsylvania  Avenue 
with  Mr.  Winthrop,  we  met  a  young  negro  woman,  who  came 
up  to  him  with  a  countenance  full  of  pleasure,  saying  it  was 
several  years  since  she  had  seen  him,  and  greeting  him  with 
such  an  affectionate  warmth  of  expression,  that  I  began  to  con 
trast  the  stiffness  and  coldness  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  mariners  with 
the  genial  flow  of  feeling  of  this  southern  race.  My  companion 
explained  to  me,  that  she  was  a  very  intelligent  girl,  and  was 
grateful  to  him  for  an  act  of  kindness  he  had  once  had  an  oppor 
tunity  of  showing  her.  I  afterward  learnt,  from  some  other 
friends  to  whom  I  told  this  anecdote,  that,  three  years  before, 
Mr.  Winthrop  and  a  brother  member  of  Congress  from  the  north 
had  been  lodging  in  the  house  of  this  girl's  mistress,  and  hearing 
that  she  was  sentenced  to  be  whipped  for  some  offense,  had  both 
of  them  protested  they  would  instantly  quit  the  house  if  the  mis 
tress  persevered.  She  had  yielded,  and  at  length  confessed  that 
she  had  been  giving  way  to  a  momentary  fit  of  temper. 

Washington  is  situated  in  the  district  of  Columbia,  comprising 
an  area  of  1 0  0  square  miles,  borrowed  from  the  neighboring  states 
to  form  an  independent  jurisdiction  by  itself.  Several  attempts 
have  been  made  to  declare  it  free,  but  hitherto  in  vain,  thanks 
to  the  union  of  the  northern  democrats  and  southern  slave-own 
ers,  aided  by  the  impracticable  schemes  of  the  abolitionists. 

The  view  of  the  city  and  the  river  Potomac  from  the  hill  on 
which  the  Capitol  stands  is  fine ;  but,  in  spite  of  some  new  pub 
lic  edifices  built  in  a  handsome  style  of  Greek  architecture,  we 
are  struck  with  the  small  progress  made  in  three  years  since  we 


CHAP.  XIV.]  MUSEUM.  201 

were  last  here.  The  vacant  spaces  are  not  filling  up  with  private 
houses,  according  to  the  original  plan,  so  that  the  would-be  me 
tropolis  wears  still  the  air  of  some  projector's  scheme  which  has 
failed.  The  principal  hotels,  however,  have  improved,  and  we 
were  not  annoyed,  as  when  last  here,  by  the  odors  left  in  the 
room  by  the  colored  domestics,  who  had  no  beds,  but  slept  any 
where  about  the  stairs  or  passages,  without  changing  their  clothes. 
With  similar  habits,  in  a  hot  climate,  no  servants  of  any  race, 
whether  free  or  slave,  African  or  European,  would  be  endurable. 
In  the  public  museum  at  the  Patent  Office  I  was  glad  to  see 
a  fine  collection  of  objects  of  natural  history,  brought  here  by 
the  late  Exploring  Expedition,  commanded  by  Captain  Wilkes. 
Among  other  treasures  is  a  splendid  series  of  recent  corals,  a  good 
description  of  which,  illustrated  by  plates,  will  soon  be  publish 
ed  by  Mr.  Dana,  at  the  expense  of  Government.  These  zoo 
phytes  are  accompanied  by  masses  of  solid  limestone,  occasionally 
including  shells,  recently  formed  in  coral  reefs,  like  those  men 
tioned  by  Mr.  Darwin  as  occurring  in  the  South  Seas,  some  as 
hard  as  marble,  others  consisting  of  conglomerates  of  pebbles  and 
calcareous  sand.  In  several  of  the  specimens  I  saw  the  imbedded 
zoophytes  and  shells  projecting  from  the  weathered  surface,  as  do 
the  petrifactions  in  many  an  ancient  limestone  where  they  have 
resisted  disintegration  more  than  the  matrix.  Other  fragments 
were  as  white  and  soft  as  chalk  ;  one  in  particular,  a  cubic  foot 
in  bulk,  brought  from  one  of  the  Sandwich  Islands,  might  have 
been  mistaken  for  a  piece  of  Shakspeare's  Cliff,  near  Dover.  It 
reminded  me  that  an  English  friend,  a  professor  of  political  econ 
omy,  met  me  about  fifteen  years  ago  on  the  beach  at  Dover,  after 
he  had  just  read  my  "  Principles  of  Geology,"  and  exclaimed, 
"  Show  me  masses  of  pure  white  rock,  like  the  substance  of 
these  cliffs,  in  the  act  of  growing  in  the  ocean  over  areas  as 
large  as  France  or  England,  and  I  will  believe  all  your  theory 
of  modern  causes."  Since  that  time  we  have  obtained  data  for 
inferring  that  the  growth  of  corals,  and  the  deposition  of  chalk- 
like  calcareous  mud,  is  actually  going  on  over  much  wider  areas 
than  the  whole  of  Europe,  so  that  I  am  now  entitled  to  claim 
my  incredulous  friend  as  a  proselyte. 

!* 


202  SCULPTURp;  FROM  PALENQUE.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

In  one  of  the  glass  cases  of  the  Museum  I  saw  the  huge  skull 
of  the  Megatherium,  with  the  remains  of  other  extinct  fossil 
animals  found  in  Georgia — a  splendid  donation  presented  by  Mr. 
Hamilton  Couper.  In  another  part  of  the  room  were  objects  of 
antiquarian  interest,  and  among  the  rest  some  sculptured  stories 
from  the  ruins  of  Palenque,  inscribed  with  the  hieroglyphic  or 
picture-writing  of  the  Aborigines,  with  which  Stephen's  lively 
work  on  Central  America,  and  the  admirable  illustrations  of 
Catherwood,  had  made  us  familiar.  The  camp-chest  of  General 
Washington,  his  sword,  the  uniform  worn  by  him  when  he  re 
signed  his  commission,  and  even  his  stick,  have  been  treasured 
up  as  relics  in  this  national  repository.  If  the  proposition  lately 
made  in  the  public  journals,  to  purchase  Washington's  country 
residence  and  negro-houses  at  Mount  Vernon,  and  to  keep  them 
forever  in  the  state  in  which  he  left  them,  should  be  carried 
into  effect,  it  would  not  only  be  a  fit  act  of  hero-worship,  but  in 
the  course  of  time  this  farm  would  become  a  curious  antiquarian 
monument,  showing  to  after  generations  the  state  of  agriculture 
at  the  period  when  the  Republic  was  founded,  and  how  the  old 
Virginian  planters  and  their  slaves  lived  in  the  eighteenth  century. 

Before  leaving  Washington  we  called,  with  Mr.  Winthrop,  at 
the  White  House,  the  residence  of  the  President.  A  colored 
servant  in  livery  came  to  the  door,  and  conducted  us  to  the  re 
ception-room,  which  is  well-proportioned  and  well-furnished,  not 
in  sumptuous  style,  but  without  any  affectation  of  republican 
plainness.  We  were  politely  received  by  Mrs.  Polk,  her  hus 
band  being  engaged  on  public  business.  I  was  afterward  intro 
duced  to  General  Scott,  to  Captain  Wilkes,  recently  returned 
from  his  expedition  to  the  South  Seas,  to  Mr.  Bancroft,  Secretary 
of  the  Navy,  and  called  on  our  minister,  Mr.  Pakenham,  and  our 
old  friends,  M.  and  Madame  de  Gerolt,  the  Prussian  minister  and 
his  wife.  I  also  examined  a  fine  collection  of  fossils  belonging  to 
Mr.  Markoe,  who  has  taken  an  active  part  in  founding  an  insti 
tution  here  for  the  promotion  of  science  arid  natural  history.  The 
day  before  our  departure  I  had  a  long  and  agreeable  conversation 
with  our  ex-minister,  Mr.  Fox,  whose  sudden  and  unexpected 
death  happened  a  few  months  later.  I  told  him  that  some  En- 


CHAP.  XIV.]         CONVERSATIONS  WITH  MR.  FOX.  203 


glish  travelers  wondered  that  I  should  set  out  on  a  long  tour  when 
the  English  and  American  papers  were  descanting  on  the  proba 
bility  of  a  war.  He  said,  that  "when  Macleod  was  detained 
prisoner  in  1841,  there  was  really  some  risk,  because  he  might 
have  been  hanged  any  day  by  the  New  Yorkers,  in  spite  of  the 
desire  of  the  Federal  Government  to  save  him  ;  but  now  there 
is  no  war  party  in  England,  and  all  reasonable  men  here,  includ 
ing  the  principal  officers  of  the  army  and  navy,  are  against  it. 
Some  of  the  western  people  may  be  warlike,  for  there  are  many 
patriots  who  believe  that  it  is  their  destiny  to  rise  on  the  ruins 
of  the  British  empire  ;  but  when  the  President,  according  to 
treaty,  shall  have  given  notice  of  a  partition  of  Oregon,  there  will 
be  time  for  negotiation.  If  one  of  two  disputants  threatens  to 
knock  the  other  down  eighteen  months  hence,  would  you  appre 
hend  immediate  mischief?"  "They  are  not  arming,"  said  I. 
"No  augury  can  be  drawn  from  that  fact,"  he  replied;  "the 
people  are  against  large  peace  establishments,  knowing  that  there 
is  no  fear  of  hostile  attacks  from  without  unless  they  provoke 
them,  and  satisfied  that  their  wealth  and  population  are  annually 
increasing.  They  are  full  of  courage,  and  would  develop  extraor 
dinary  resources  in  a  war,  however  much  they  would  suffer  at 
the  first  onset." 

We  then  conversed  freely  on  the  future  prospects  of  civiliza 
tion  in  the  North  American  continent.  He  had  formed  far  less 
sanguine  expectations  than  I  had,  but  confessed,  that  though  he 
had  resided  so  many  years  in  the  country,  he  knew  little  or  noth 
ing  of  the  northern  states,  especially  of  New  England.  When 
I  dwelt  on  the  progress  I  had  witnessed,  even  in  four  years,  in 
the  schools  and  educational  institutions,  the  increase  of  readers 
and  of  good  books,  and  the  preparations  making  for  future  scien 
tific  achievements,  he  frankly  admitted  that  he  had  habitually 
contemplated  the  Union  from  a  somewhat  unfavorable  point  of 
view.  I  observed  to  him  that  Washington  was  not  a  metropo 
lis,  like  London,  nor  even  like  Edinburgh  or  Dublin,  but  a  town 
which  had  not  thriven,  in  spite  of  government  patronage.  The 
members  of  Congress  did  not  bring  their  families  to  it,  because  it 
\vould  often  take  them  away  from  larger  cities,  where  they  were 


204  FOREIGN  DIPLOMATISTS.  [CHAP.  XIVr. 


enjoying  more  refined  and  intellectual  society.  It  was  as  if  the 
Legislature  of  the  British  empire,  representing  not  only  England, 
Scotland,  and  Ireland,  but  Canada,  Newfoundland,  the  West 
Indies,  Australia,  the  Cape,  and  all  the  other  dependencies  of  the 
British  crown,  were  to  meet  in  some  third-rate  town.  Nor  even 
then  would  the  comparison  be  a  fair  one,  because  if  there  be  one 
characteristic  more  than  another  which  advantageously  distin 
guishes  three-fourths  of  the  American  population,  it  is  the  high 
social,  intellectual,  and  political  condition,  relatively  speaking,  of 
the  working  classes.  The  foreign  diplomatist  residing  in  Wash 
ington  lives  within  the  borders  of  the  slave  territory,  where  the 
laborers  are  more  degraded,  and  perhaps  less  progressive,  than  in 
any  European  state.  Besides,  the  foreign  embassador,  in  his  offi 
cial  and  political  capacity,  too  often  sees  exposed  the  weak  side 
of  the  constitution  of  the  Union,  and  has  to  deplore  the  power- 
lessness  of  the  federal  executive  to  carry  out  its  own  views,  and 
to  control  the  will  of  thirty  independent  states,  or  as  many  im- 
peria  in  imperio.  Just  when  he  may  have  come  to  an  under 
standing  with  the  leading  statesmen  on  points  of  international 
law,  so  that  his  negotiations  in  any  other  metropolis  would  have 
been  brought  to  a  successful  issue,  he  finds  that  the  real  difficul 
ties  are  only  beginning.  It  still  remains  to  be  seen  whether  the 
government  is  strong  enough  to  contend  with  the  people,  or  has 
the  will  so  to  act,  or  whether  it  will  court  popularity  by  yielding 
to  their  prejudices,  or  even  exciting  their  passions.  Such  is  at 
this  moment  the  position  of  affairs,  and  of  our  minister  at  Wash 
ington. 


'Library 


^-^  California 
CHAPTER  XV. 

Washington  to  Richmond.  —  Legislature  of  Virginia  in  Session.  —  Substitu 
tion  of  White  for  Slave  Labor.  —  Progress  of  Negro  Instruction.  —  Slave- 
dealers.  —  Kindness  to  Negroes.  —  Coal  of  Oolitic  Period  near  Richmond. 
—  Visit  to  the  Mines.  —  Upright  Fossil  Trees.  —  Deep  Shafts,  and  Thick 
ness  of  Coal  Seams.  —  Explosion  of  Gas.  —  Natural  Coke.  —  Resemblance 
of  the  more  modern  Coal-measures  to  old  Carboniferous  Rocks.  —  Whites 
working  with  free  Negroes  in  the  Mines. 

Dec,  16,  1845.  —  FROM  Washington  we  went  to  Richmond, 
and  were  glad  to  find  that  the  great  southern  line  of  railway  from 
Acquia  Creek  had  been  completed  since  we  were  last  here,  by 
which  we  escaped  twelve  miles  of  jolting  over  a  rough  road,  de 
scribed  with  so  much  humor  by  Dickens. 

At  Richmond  T  went  into  the  Supreme  Court  of  Appeal,  and, 
as  I  entered,  heard  the  counsel  who  was  pleading,  cite  a  recent 
decision  of  the  English  Court  of  Chancery  as  bearing  on  his  case. 
The  Houses  of  Legislature  of  Virginia  were  in  session,  and  I 
heard  part  of  a  debate  on  a  proposed  railway  from  Baltimore  to 
the  valley  of  the  Great  Kanawha,  in  Western  Virginia.  Much 
jealousy  was  expressed  lest  the  metropolis  of  Maryland,  instead 
of  Richmond,  should  reap  the  chief  fruits  of  this  project,  at  which 
I  was  not  surprised  ;  for  Virginia,  with  a  population  of  1,100,000 
inhabitants,  has  no  towns  larger  than  Richmond  and  Norfolk. 
Beverly,  and  the  early  writers  on  this  state,  say,  "  that  the  peo 
ple  were  prevented  from  congregating  in  large  towns  by  the  en 
joyment  of  an  extensive  system  of  river  navigation,  which  ena 
bled  merchant  ships  to  sail  up  every  where  to  the  warehouses  of 
each  planter  and  receive  their  freight.  Hence  there  was  less 
activity  and  enterprise,  and  a  want  of  the  competition,  which  the 
collected  life  in  cities  promotes."^ 

One  of  the  senators,  whom  I  had  met  the  day  before  at  a  din 
ner  party,  conversed  with  me  on  the  publication  of  the  geological 
*  See  "Graham's  History,"  vol.  i.  p.  145. 


206  VIRGINIA.  [Cmp.  XV. 


maps  and  reports  of  the  State  Survey,  which  have  been  admira 
bly  executed  under  the  direction  of  Professor  W.  B.  Rogers. 

The  division  of  legislative  duties  between  a  central  power,  such 
as  I  had  just  seen  deliberating  at  Washington,  and  the  separate 
and  independent  states,  such  as  that  now  in  simultaneous  action 
here  at  Richmond,  seems  the  only  form  fitted  for  a  widely  ex 
tended  empire,  if  the  representative  system  is  to  prevail.  The 
present  population  of  the  different  states  may  be  compared,  on  an 
average,  to  that  of  English  counties,  or,  at  least,  to  colonies  of  the 
British  empire.  At  the  same  period  of  the  year,  when  each  is 
managing  its  own  affairs  in  regard  to  internal  improvements — 
schools,  colleges,  police,  railways,  canals,  and  direct  taxes — the 
central  parliament  is  discussing  questions  of  foreign  policy — the 
division  of  Oregon;  the  state  of  the  army  and  navy,  questions  of 
free  trade,  and  a  high  or  low  tariff. 

By  aid  of  railways,  steamers,  and  the  electric  telegraph,  it 
might  be  possible  to  conduct  all  the  business  of  the  twenty-seven 
states  at  Washington,  but  not  with  the  same  efficiency  or  econ 
omy  ;  for,  in  that  case,  the  attention  of  the  members  of  the  two 
houses  of  Congress  would  be  distracted  by  the  number  and  variety 
of  subjects  submitted  to  them,  and  the  leading  statesmen  would 
be  crushed  by  the  weight  of  official  and  parliamentary  business. 

While  at  Richmond,  we  saw  some  agreeable  and  refined  so 
ciety  in  the  families  of  the  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  and 
other  lawyers  ;  but  there  is  little  here  of  that  activity  of  mind 
and  feeling  for  literature  and  science  which  strikes  one  in  the 
best  circles  in  New  England.  Virginia,  however,  seems  to  be 
rousing  herself,  and  preparing  to  make  an  effort  to  enlarge  her 
resources,  by  promoting  schools  and  internal  improvements.  Her 
pride  has  been  hurt  at  seeing  how  rapidly  her  old  political 
ascendency  has  passed  away,  and  how,  with  so  large  and  rich  a 
territory,  she  has  been  outstripped  in  the  race  by  newer  states, 
especially  Ohio.  She  is  unwilling  to  believe  that  her  negro 
population  is  the  chief  obstacle  to  her  onward  march,  yet  can 
not  shut  her  eyes  to  the  fact  that  the  upper  or  hilly  region  of 
the  Alleghanies,  where  the  whites  predominate,  has  been  ad 
vancing  in  a  more  rapid  ratio  than  the  eastern  counties.  The 


CHAP.  XV.]  WHITE  AND  SLAVE  LABOR.  207 

whites  who  live  west  of  the  Blue  Ridge  are  about  equal  in 
number  to  those  who  live  east  of  it  ;  but  the  eastern  division,  or 
lower  country,  owns  a  greater  number  of  slaves,  and  in  right  of 
them  has  more  votes.  The  western  men  are  talking  loudly  of 
a  convention  to  place  them  on  a  more  equal  footing,  some  even 
desiring  a  separation  into  two  states.  There  has  also  been  a 
suggestion,  that  it  might  be  well  to  allow  a  single  county  to 
declare  itself  free,  without  waiting  for  the  emancipation  of  others. 
Among  other  signs  of  approaching  change,  I  am  told  that  several 
new  settlers  from  the  north  have  made  a  practical  demonstration 
that  slave  labor  is  less  profitable,  even  east  of  the  Blue  Ridge, 
than  that  of  free  whites.  As  we  sailed  down  the  Potomac  from 
Washington,  a  landed  proprietor  of  Fairfax  county  pointed  out 
to  me  some  estates  in  Virginia,  on  the  right  bank  of  the  river,  in 
which  free  had  been  substituted  for  slave  labor  since  I  was  here 
in  1841.  Some  farmers  came  from  New  Hampshire  and  Con 
necticut,  and,  having  bought  the  land  at  five  dollars  an  acre, 
tilled  it  with  their  own  hands  and  those  of  their  family,  aided  in 
some  cases  by  a  few  hired  whites.  To  the  astonishment  of  the 
surrounding  planters,  before  the  end  of  four  years,  they  had  raised 
the  value  of  the  soil  from  five  to  forty  dollars  per  acre,  having 
introduced  for  the  first  time  a  rotation  of  corn  and  green  crops, 
instead  of  first  exhausting  the  soil,  and  then  letting  it  lie  fallow 
for  years  to  recover  itself.  They  have  also  escaped  the  ruinous 
expense  of  feeding  large  bodies  of  negroes  in  those  seasons  when 
the  harvest  is  deficient.  They  do  not  pretend  to  indulge  in  that 
hospitality  for  which  the  old  Virginians  and  North  Carolinians 
were  celebrated,  who  often  mortgaged  their  estates  to  pay  the 
annual  salary  of  their  overseer,  till  he  himself  became  the  pro 
prietor.  The  master,  in  that  case,  usually  migrated  with  part 
of  his  negroes  to  settle  farther  south  or  southwest,  introducing 
into  the  new  states  more  civilized  habits  and  manners  than  would 
have  belonged  to  them  had  they  been  entirely  peopled  by  adven 
turers  from  the  north  or  from  Europe. 

On  Sunday,  December  the  21st,  we  attended  service  in  a 
handsome  new  Episcopal  church,  called  St.  Paul's,  and  heard 
the  rector  announce  to  the  congregation  that  a  decision  had  just 


203  NEGRO  EDUCATION.  [CHAP.  XV. 

been  come  to  (by  a  majority  of  all  the  proprietors  of  the  church, 
as  I  was  afterward  informed),  that  one  of  the  side  galleries 
should  henceforth  be  set  apart  exclusively  for  people  of  color. 
This  resolution,  he  said,  had  been  taken  in  order  that  they  and 
their  servants  might  unite  in  the  worship  of  the  same  God,  as 
they  hoped  to  enter  hereafter  together  into  his  everlasting  king 
dom,  if  they  obeyed  his  laws.  I  inquired  whether  they  would 
not  have  done  more  toward  raising  the  slaves  to  a  footing  of 
equality  in  the  house  of  prayer,  if  they  had  opened  the  same 
galleries  to  negroes  and  whites.  In  reply,  I  was  assured  that, 
in  the  present  state  of  social  feeling,  the  colored  people  would 
gain  less  by  such  joint  occupancy,  because,  from  their  habitual 
deference  to  the  whites,  they  would  yield  to  them  all  the  front 
places.  There  were  few  negroes  present  ;  but  I  am  told  that,  if 
I  went  to  the  Baptist  or  Methodist  churches,  I  should  find  the 
galleries  quite  full.  There  are  several  Sunday  schools  here  for 
negroes,  and  it  is  a  singular  fact  thai,  in  spite  of  the  law  against 
instructing  slaves,  many  of  the  whites  have  been  taught  to  read 
by  negro  nurses.  A  large  proportion  of  the  slaves  and  free 
colored  people  here  are  of  mixed  breed.  The  employment  of 
this  class  as  in-door  servants  in  cities  arises  partly  from  the  in 
terest  taken  in  them  by  their  white  parents,  who  have  manu- 
mited  them  and  helped  them  to  rise  in  the  world,  and  partly 
because  the  rich  prefer  them  as  domestic  servants,  for  their  ap 
pearance  is  more  agreeable,  and  they  are  more  intelligent. 
Whether  their  superiority  is  owing  to  physical  causes,  and  that 
share  of  an  European  organization  which  they  inherit  in  right 
of  one  of  their  parents,  or  whether  it  may  be  referred  to  their 
early  intercourse  and  contact  with  the  whites, — in  other  words, 
to  a  better  education, — is  still  matter  of  controversy. 

Several  Virginian  planters  have  spoken  to  me  of  the  negro 
race  as  naturally  warm-hearted,  patient,  and  cheerful,  grateful 
for  benefits,  and  forgiving  of  injuries.  They  are  also  of  a  relig 
ious  temperament,  bordering  on  superstition.  Even  those  who 
think  they  ought  forever  to  remain  in  servitude,  give  them  a 
character  which  leads  one  to  the  belief  that  steps  ought  long 
ago  to  have  been  taken  toward  their  gradual  emancipation, 


CHAP.  XV.]  NEGRO  SLAVERY.  209 

Had  some  legislative  provision  been  made  with  this  view  before 
the  annexation  of  Texas,  a  period  being  fixed  after  which  all  the 
children  born  in  this  state  should  be  free,  that  new  territory 
would  have  afforded  a  useful  outlet  for  the  black  population  of 
Virginia,  and  whites  would  have  supplied  the  vacancies  which 
are  now  filled  up  by  the  breeding  of  negroes.  In  the  absence 
of  such  enactments,  Texas  prolongs  the  duration  of  negro  slavery 
in  Virginia,  aggravating  one  of  its  worst  consequences,  the  in 
ternal  slave  trade,  and  keeping  up  the  price  of  negroes  at  home. 
They  are  now  selling  for  500,  750,  and  1000  dollars  each,  ac 
cording  to  their  qualifications.  There  are  always  dealers  at 
Richmond,  whose  business  it  is  to  collect  slaves  for  the  southern 
market ;  and,  until  a  gang  is  ready  to  start  for  the  south,  they 
are  kept  here  well  fed,  and  as  cheerful  as  possible.  In  a  court 
of  the  jail,  where  they  are  lodged,  I  see  them  every  day  amusing 
themselves  by  playing  at  quoits.  How  much  this  traffic  is  ab 
horred,  even  by  those  who  encourage  it,  is  shown  by  the  low  social 
position  held  by  the  dealer,  even  when  he  has  made  a  large  for 
tune.  When  they  conduct  gangs  of  fifty  slaves  at  a  time  across 
the  mountains  to  the  Ohio  river,  they  usually  manacle  some  of  the 
men,  but  on  reaching  the  Ohio  river,  they  have  no  longer  any 
fear  of  their  attempting  an  escape,  and  they  then  unshackle  them. 
That  the  condition  of  slaves  in  Virginia  is  steadily  improving, 
all  here  seem  agreed.  One  of  the  greatest  evils  olf  the  system 
is  the  compulsory  separation  of  members  of  the  same  family. 
Since  my  arrival  at  Richmond,  a  case  has  come  to  my  knowl 
edge,  of  a  negro  who  petitioned  a  rich  individual  to  purchase 
him,  because  he  was  going  to  be  sold,  and  was  in  danger  of  being 
sent  to  New  Orleans,  his  wife  and  child  remaining  in  Virginia. 
But  such  instances  are  far  less  common  than  would  be  imagined, 
owing  to  the  kind  feeling  of  the  southern  planters  toward  their 
"  own  people,"  as  they  call  them.  Even  in  extreme  cases, 
where  the  property  of  an  insolvent  is  brought  to  the  hammer, 
public  opinion  acts  as  a  powerful  check  against  the  parting  of 
kindred.  We  heard  of  two  recent  cases,  one  in  which  the  pa 
rents  were  put  up  without  their  children,  and  the  mother  being 
in  tears,  no  one  would  bid  till  the  dealer  put  the  children  up 


210  KINDNESS  TO  NEGROES.  [CHAP.  XV. 

also.  They  then  sold  very  well.  Another,  where  the  dealer 
was  compelled,  in  like  manner,  to  sell  a  father  and  son  to 
gether.  I  learned  with  pleasure  an  anecdote,  from  undoubted 
authority,  very  characteristic  of  the  indulgence  of  owners  of  the 
higher  class  of  society  here  toward  their  slaves.  One  of  the 
judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  at  Richmond,  having  four  or  five 
supernumerary  negroes  in  his  establishment,  proposed  to  them  to 
go  to  his  plantation  in  the  country.  As  they  had  acquired  town 
habits,  they  objected,  and  begged  him  instead  to  look  out  for  a 
good  master  who  would  carry  them  to  a  city  farther  south,  where 
they  might  enjoy  a  warm  climate.  The  judge  accordingly  made 
his  arrangements,  and,  for  the  sake  of  securing  the  desired  con 
ditions,  was  to  receive  for  each  a  price  below  their  market  value. 
Just  as  they  were  about  to  leave  Richmond  for  Louisiana,  one 
of  the  women  turned  faint-hearted,  at  which  all  the  rest  lost 
courage  ;  for  their  local  and  personal  attachments  are  very  strong, 
although  they  seem  always  ready  to  migrate  cheerfully  to  any 
part  of  the  world  with  their  owners.  The  affair  ended  in  the 
good-natured  judge  having  to  repurchase  them,  paying  the  dif 
ference  of  price  between  the  sum  agreed  upon  for  each,  and 
what  they  would  have  fetched  at  an  auction. 

Great  sacrifices  are  often  made  from  a  sense  of  duty,  by  re 
taining  possession  of  inherited  estates,  which  it  would  be  most 
desirable  to  sell,  and  which  the  owners  can  not  part  with,  because 
they  feel  it  would  be  wrong  to  abandon  the  slaves  to  an  un 
known  purchaser.  We  became  acquainted  with  the  family  of  a 
widow,  who  had  six  daughters  and  no  son  to  take  on  himself  the 
management  of  a  plantation,  always  a  responsible,  and  often  a 
very  difficult  undertaking.  It  was  felt  by  all  the  relatives  and 
neighbors  to  be  most  desirable  that  the  property,  situated  in  a 
remote  part  of  the  country,  near  the  sea,  should  be  sold,  in  order 
that  the  young  ladies  and  their  mother  should  have  the  benefit 
of  society  in  a  large  town.  They  wished  it  themselves,  being 
in  very  moderate  circumstances,  but  were  withheld  by  conscien 
tious  motives  from  leaving  a  large  body  of  dependents,  whom 
they  had  known  from  childhood,  and  who  could  scarcely  hope  to 
be  treated  with  the  same  indulgence  by  strangers. 


CHAP.  XV.]  COAL  OF  OOLITIC  PERIOD.  211 

I  had  stopped  at  Richmond  on  my  way  south,  for  the  sake  of 
exploring  geologically  some  coal  mines,  distant  about  thirteen 
miles  from  the  city  to  the  westward.  Some  of  the  largest  and 
most  productive  of  these,  situated  in  Chesterfield  County,  belong 
to  an  English  company,  and  one  of  them  was  under  the  manage 
ment  of  Mr.  A.  F.  Gifford,  formerly  an  officer  in  the  British 
army,  and  married  to  a  Virginian  lady.  At  their  agreeable 
residence,  near  the  Blackheath  mines,  we  were  received  most 
kindly  and  hospitably.  On  our  road  from  Richmond,  we  passed 
many  fields  which  had  been  left  fallow  for  years,  after  having 
been  exhausted  by  a  crop  of  tobacco.  The  whole  country  was 
covered  with  snow,  and,  in  the  pine  forests,  the  tall  trunks  of  the 
trees  had  a  white  coating  on  their  windward  side,  as  if  one  half 
had  been  painted.  I  persevered,  nevertheless,  in  my  examination 
of  the  mines,  for  my  underground  work  was  not  impeded  by  the 
weather,  and  I  saw  so  much  that  was  new,  and  of  high  scientific 
interest  in  this  coal-field,  that  I  returned  the  following  spring  to 
complete  my  survey. 

There  are  two  regions  in  the  state  of  Virginia  (a  country 
about  equal  in  area  to  the  whole  of  England  proper),  in  which 
productive  coal-measures  occur.  In  one  of  these  which  may  be 
called  the  western  coal-field,  the  strata  belong  to  the  ancient 
carboniferous  group,  characterized  by  fossil  plants  of  the  same 
genera,  arid,  to  a  great  extent,  the  same  species,  as  those  found 
in  the  ancient  coal-measures  of  Europe.  The  other  one,  wholly 
disconnected  in  its  geographical  and  geological  relations,  is  found 
to  the  east  of  the  Appalachian  Mountains,  in  the  middle  of  that 
granitic  region,  sometimes  called  the  Atlantic  Slope. *  In  con 
sequence  of  the  isolated  position  of  these  eastern  coal-beds,  the 
lowest  of  which  rest  immediately  on  the  fundamental  granite, 
while  the  uppermost  are  not  covered  by  any  overlying  fossiliferous 
formations,  we  have  scarcely  any  means  of  determining  their 
relative  age,  except  by  the  characters  of  their  included  organic 
remains.  The  study  of  these,  induced  Professor  W.  B.  Rogers, 
in  his  memoir,  published  in  1842,f  to  declare  his  opinion  that 

*  See  geological  map  of  the  U.  S.  in  my  "  Travels  in  North  America," 
vol.  i.  and  ii.  p.  92.  t  Trans,  of  American  Geologists,  p.  298. 


212  UPRIGHT  FOSSIL  TREES.  [CHAP.  XV. 

this  coal  was  of  newer  date  than  that  of  the  Appalachians,  and 
was  about  the  age  of  the  Oolite  or  Lias,  a  conclusion  which,  after 
a  careful  examination  of  the  evidence  on  the  spot,  and  of  all  the 
organic  remains  which  1  could  collect,  appears  to  me  to  come 
very  near  the  truth.  If  we  embrace  this  conclusion,  these  rocks 
are  the  only  ones  hitherto  known  in  all  Canada  and  the  United 
States,  which  we  can  prove,  by  their  organic  remains,  to  be  of 
contemporaneous  origin  with  the  Oolitic  or  Jurassic  formation  of 
Europe.  The  tract  of  country  occupied  by  the  crystalline  rocks, 
granite,  gneiss,  hornblende-schist,  and  others,  which  runs  parallel 
to  the  Alleghariy  Mountains,  and  between  them  and  the  sea,  is 
in  this  part  of  Virginia  about  seventy  miles  broad.  In  the  midst 
of  this  area  occurs  the  coal-field  alluded  to,  twenty-six  miles  long, 
and  varying  in  breadth  from  four  to  twelve  miles.  The  James 
river  flows  through  the  middle  of  it,  about  fifteen  miles  from  its 
northern  extremity,  while  the  Appomattox  river  traverses  it  near 
its  southern  borders.  The  beds  lie  in  a  trough  (see  section,  fig. 
4,  p.  213),  the  lowest  of  them  usually  highly  inclined  where  they 
crop  out  along  the  margin  of  the  basin,  while  the  strata  higher 
in  the  series,  occupying  the  central  parts  of  the  area,  and  which 
are  devoid  of  organic  remains  and  of  coal,  are  nearly  horizontal. 

A  great  portion  of  these  coal-measures  consists  of  quartzose 
sandstone  and  coarse  grit,  entirely  composed  of  the  detritus  of  the 
neighboring  granitic  and  syenitic  rocks.  Dark  carbonaceous 
shales  arid  clays,  occasionally  charged  with  iron  ores,  abound  in 
the  proximity  of  the  coal-seams,  and  numerous  impressions  of 
plants,  chiefly  ferns  and  Zarnites,  are  met  with  in  shales,  to 
gether  with  flattened  and  prostrate  stems  of  Calamites  and  Equi- 
setum.  These  last,  however,  the  Calamites  and  Equisetum,  are 
very  commonly  met  with  in  a  vertical  position,  more  or  less  com 
pressed  perpendicularly.  I  entertain  no  doubt  that  the  greater 
number  of  these  plants  standing  erect  in  the  beds  above  and 
between  the  seams  of  coal  which  I  saw  at  points  many  miles 
distant  from  each  other,  have  grown  in  the  places  where  they 
are  now  buried  in  sand  and  mud,  and  this  fact  implies  the 
gradual  accumulation  of  the  coal-measures  during  a  slow  and 
repeated  subsidence  of  the  whole  region. 


CHAP.  XV.]  THICKNESS  OF  COAL-SEAMS.  213 

A  great  number  of  fossil  fish,  chiefly  referable  to  two  nearly 
allied  species  of  a  genus  very  distinct  from  any  ichthyolite  hith 
erto  discovered  elsewhere  (a  ganoid  with  a  homocercal  tail), 
occur  in  the  lower  strata,  with  a  few  shells  ;  but  they  afforded 
me  no  positive  characters  to  determine  whether  the  deposit  was 
of  marine  or  fresh-water  origin.  Above  these  fossiliferous  beds, 
which  probably  never  exceed  400  or  500  feet  in  thickness,  a 
great  succession  of  grits,  sandstone,  and  shales,  of  unknown  depth, 
occur.  They  have  yielded  no  coal,  nor  as  yet  any  organic  re 
mains.  No  speculator  has  been  bold  enough  to  sink  a  shaft 
through  them,  and  it  is  believed  that  toward  the  central  parts  of 
the  basin  they  might  have  to  pass  through  2000  or  2500  feet 
of  sterile  rocks  before  reaching  the  fundamental  coal-seams. 

The  next  ideal  section  will  show  the  manner  in  which  I  sup 
pose  the  coal-field  to  be  placed  in  a  hollow  in  the  granitic  rocks, 
the  whole  country  having  suffered  by  great  denudation,  and  the 
surface  having  been  planed  off  almost  uniformly,  and  at  the  same 
time  overspread  by  a  deep  covering  of  gravel  with  red  and  yellow 

Section  showing  the  Geological  Position  of  the  James  River,  or  East  Virginian 

Coal-Field. 


Fig.  4. 


A.  Granite,  gneiss,  &c.  B.  Coal-measures. 

C.  Tertiary  strata.  D.  Drift  or  ancient  alluvium. 

clay,  concealing  the  subjacent  formation  from  view,  so  that  the 
structure  of  the  region  could  not  be  made  out  without  difficulty 
but  for  artificial  excavations.  It  will  be  seen  by  the  section 
that  the  tertiary  strata  first  make  their  appearance  at  Rich 
mond  about  thirteen  miles  from  the  eastern  outcrop  of  the  coal, 
and  they  continue  to  occupy  the  lower  country  between  that  city 
and  the  Atlantic. 

The  only  beds  of  coal  hitherto  discovered  lie  in  the  lower  part 


214  VEGETABLE  STRUCTURE  OF  COAL.         [CHAP.  XV. 

of  the  coal-measures,  and  consequently  come  up  to  the  surface  all 
round  the  margin  of  the  basin.  As  the  dip  is  usually  at  a  con 
siderable  angle,  vertical  shafts,  from  400  to  800  feet  deep,  are 
required  to  reach  the  great  seam,  at  the  distance  of  a  few  hun 
dred  yards  inside  the  edge  of  the  basin.  It  is  only,  therefore,  along 
a  narrow  band  of  country  that  the  coal  can  crop  out  naturally, 
and  even  here  it  is  rarely  exposed,  and  only  where  a  river  or 
valley  has  cut  through  the  superficial  drift,  often  thirty  or  forty 
feet  thick.  The  principal  coal-seam  occurs  in  greatest  force  at 
Blackheath  and  the  adjoining  parts  of  Chesterfield  county,  where 
the  coal  is  for  the  most  part  very  pure,  and  actually  attains  the 
unusual  thickness  of  between  thirty  or  forty  feet.  I  was  not  a 
little  surprised,  when  I  descended,  with  Mr.  Gifford,  a  shaft  800 
feet  deep,  to  find  myself  in  a  chamber  more  than  forty  feet  high, 
caused  by  the  removal  of  the  coal.  Timber  props  of  great 
strength  are  required  to  support  the  roof,  and  although  the  use  of 
wood  is  lavish  here,  as  in  most  parts  of  the  United  States,  the 
strong  props  are  seen  to  bend  under  the  incumbent  weight.  This 
great  seam  is  sometimes  parted  from  the  fundamental  granite  by 
an  inch  or  two  of  shale,  which  seems  to  have  constituted  the  soil 
on  which  the  plants  grew.  At  some  points  where  the  granite 
floor  touches  the  coal,  the  contact  may  have  been  occasioned  by 
subsequent  disturbances,  for  the  rocks  are  fractured  and  shifted  in 
many  places.  This  more  modern  coal,  as  well  as  that  of  New 
castle,  and  other  kinds  of  more  ancient  date,  exhibits  under  the 
microscope  distinct  evidence  of  vegetable  structure,  consisting  in 
this  case  principally  of  parallel  fibers  or  tubes,  whose  walls  are 
pierced  with  circular  or  elongated  holes.  See  fig.  5.  B.  and  F. 

By  analysis  it  is  found  that  so  far  as  relates  to  the  proportions 
of  carbon  and  hydrogen,  the  composition  of  this  coal  is  identical 
with  that  of  ordinary  specimens  of  the  most  ancient  coal  of 
America  and  Europe,  although  the  latter  has  been  derived  from 
an  assemblage  of  plants  of  very  distinct  species.  The  bituminous 
coal,  for  example,  of  the  Ohio  coal-field,  and  that  of  Alabama, 
yields  the  same  elements. 

For  many  years  the  cities  of  New  York  and  Philadelphia  hava 
been  supplied  with  gas  for  lighting  their  streets  and  houses,  from 


CHAP.  XV.] 


EXPLOSION  OF  GAS. 


215 


Vegetable  Structure  of  Mineral  Charcoal  from  Clover-hill  Mines,  Virginia. 

coal  of  the  Blackheath  mines,  and  the  annual  quantity  taken  by 
Philadelphia  alone,  has  of  late  years  amounted  to  10,000  tons. 
We  miufht  have  expected,  therefore,  that  there  would  be  danger 
of  the  disengagement  of  inflammable  gases  from  coal  containing 
so  much  volatile  matter.  Accordingly,  here,  as  in  the  English 
coal-pits,  fatal  explosions  have  sometimes  occurred.  One  of  these 
happened  at  Blackheath,  in  1839,  by  which  forty-five  negroes 
and  two  white  overseers  lost  their  lives  ;  and  another  almost  as 
serious,  so  lately  as  the  year  1844. 

Before  I  examined  this  region,  I  was  told  that  a  strange 
anomaly  occurred  in  it,  for  there  were  beds  of  coke  overlying 
others  consisting  of  bituminous  coal.  I  found,  on  visiting  the 
various  localities  of  this  natural  coke,  that  it  was  caused  by  the 
vicinity  or  contact  of  volcanic  rocks  (greenstone  and  basalt), 
which,  coming  up  through  the  granite,  intersect  the  coal- 
measures,  or  sometimes  make  their  way  laterally  between  two 
strata,  appearing  as  a  conformable  mass.  As  in  the  Durham 
coal-field  in  England  (in  the  Has  well  collieries,  for  example),  the 
igneous  rock  has  driven  out  all  the  gaseous  matter,  and,  where 


216  MODERN  AND  ANCIENT  COAL-FIELDS.      [CHAP.  XV. 

it  overlies  it,  has  deprived  the  upper  coal  of  its  volatile  ingre 
dients,  while  its  influence  has  not  always  extended  to  lower 
seams.  In  some  spots,  the  conversion  of  coal  into  coke  seems 
to  have  been  brought  about,  not  so  much  by  the  heating  agency 
of  the  intrusive  basalt,  as  by  its  mechanical  effect  in  breaking  up 
and  destroying  the  integrity  of  the  beds,  and  rendering  them 
permeable  to  water,  thereby  facilitating  the  escape  of  the  gases 
of  decomposing  coal. 

In  conclusion,  I  may  observe  that  I  was  much  struck  with 
the  general  similarity  of  this  more  modern  or  Oolitic  coal-field, 
and  those  of  ancient  or  Paleozoic  date  in  England  and  in  Europe 
generally.  I  was  especially  reminded  of  the  carboniferous  rocks 
near  St.  Etienne,  in  France,  which  I  visited  in  1843,  These 
also  rest  on  granite,  and  consist  of  coarse  grits  and  sandstone 
derived  from  the  detritus  of  granite.  In  both  coal-fields,  the 
French  and  the  Virginian,  upright  Calamites  abound ;  fossil 
plants  are  met  with  in  both,  almost  to  the  exclusion  of  other 
organic  remains,  shells  especially  being  absent.  The  character 
of  the  coal  is  similar,  but  in  the  richness  and  thickness  of  the 
seams  the  Virginian  formation  is  pre-eminent.  When  we  behold 
phenomena  so  identical,  repeated  at  times  so  remote  in  the  earth's 
history,  and  at  periods  when  such  very  distinct  forms  of  vegeta 
tion  flourished,  we  may  derive  from  the  fact  a  useful  caution,  in 
regard  to  certain  popular  generalizations  respecting  a  peculiar 
state  of  the  globe  during  the  remoter  of  the  two  epochs  alluded 
to.  Some  geologists,  for  example,  have  supposed  an  atmosphere 
densely  charged  with  carbonic  acid  to  be  necessary  to  explain 
the  origin  of  coal — an  atmosphere  so  unlike  the  present,  as  to  be 
unfit  for  the  existence  of  air-breathing,  vertebrate  animals  ;  but 
this  theory  they  will  hardly  be  prepared  to  extend  to  so  modern 
an  era  as  the  Oolitic  or  Triassic.^ 

During  my  visit  to  one  of  the  coal-pits,  an  English  overseer, 
who  was  superintending  the  works,  told  me  that  within  his 
memory  there  had  been  a  great  improvement  in  the  treatment 

*  See  a  paper  on  this  coal-field,  by  the  author,  Quarterly  Journal  Geolog. 
Soc.,  August,  1847,  vol.  iii.  p.  261,  and  an  accompanying  memoir,  descrip 
tive  of  the  fossil  plants,  by  Charles  J.  F.  Bunbury,  For.  S.  G.  S. 


CHAP.  XV.]  NEGROES  IN  THE  MINES.  217 

of  the  negroes.  Some  years  ago,  a  planter  came  to  him  with  a 
refractory  slave,  and  asked  him  to  keep  him  underground  for  a 
year  by  way  of  punishment,  saying,  that  no  pay  would  be  re 
quired  for  his  hire.  The  overseer  retorted  that  he  would  be  no 
man's  jailer.  The  British  company  at  Blackheath  having  re 
solved  not  to  employ  any  slaves,  and  Mr.  Gifford,  having  engaged 
130  free^^roes,  found  he  could  preserve  good  discipline  without 
corpora^^Pnishment ;  and  he  not  only  persuaded  several  newly 
arrived  laborers  from  England  to  work  with  the  blacks,  but  old 
Virginians,  also,  of  the  white  race,  engaged  themselves,  although 
their  countrymen  looked  down  upon  them  at  first  for  associating 
with  such  companions.  They  confessed  that,  for  a  time,  "  they 
felt  very  awkward,"  but  it  was  not  long  before  the  proprietors 
of  other  mines  followed  the  example  which  had  been  set  them. 
VOL.  i. — K 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

Journey  through  North  Carolina. — Wilmington. — Recent  Firj^i Passports 
for  Slaves. — Cape  Fear  River  and  Smithfield. — Spanish  IJHB^and  Uses 
of.  —  Charleston.  —  Anti-Negro  Feeling.  —  Passage  from  Mulattoes  to 
Whites. — Law  against  importing  free  Blacks. — Dispute  with  Massachu 
setts. — Society  in  Charleston. — Governesses. — War  Panic. — Anti-English 
Feeling  caused  by  Newspaper  Press. — National  Arbitration  of  the  Amer 
icans. — Dr.  Bachman's  Zoology. — Geographical  Representation  of  Spe 
cies. — Rattle-Snakes. — Turkey  Buzzards. 

Dec.  23,  1845. — THE  monotony  of  the  scenery  in  the  princi 
pal  route  from  the  northern  to  the  southern  states  is  easily 
understood  by  a  geologist,  for  the  line  of  railroad  happens  to  run 
for  hundreds  of  miles  on  the  tertiary  strata,  near  their  junction 
with  the  granitic  rocks.  Take  any  road  in  a  transverse  direction 
from  the  sea  coast  to  the  Alleghanies,  and  the  traveler  will  meet 
with  the  greatest  variety  in  the  scenery.^  In  passing  over  the 
tertiary  sands  and  clays,  we  see  Pine  Barrens  where  the  soil  is 
sandy,  and  a  swamp,  or  cane-brake,  where  the  argillaceous  beds 
come  to  the  surface.  The  entire  absence  of  all  boulders  and 
stones,  such  as  are  observable  almost  every  where  in  the  New 
England  States  and  New  York,  is  a  marked  geological  peculiar 
ity  of  these  southern  lowlands.  Such  erratic  blocks  and  boulders 
are  by  no  means  confined  in  the  north  to  the  granitic  or  second 
ary  formations,  for  some  of  the  largest  of  them,  huge  fragments 
of  granite,  for  example,  twenty  feet  in  diameter,  rest  on  the 
newer  tertiary  deposits  of  the  island  of  Martha's  Vineyard,  off 
the  coast  of  Massachusetts. 

After  leaving  Richmond,  I  remarked  that  the  railway  from 
Weldon  to  Wilmington,  through  North  Carolina,  had  not  im 
proved  in  the  last  three  years,  nor  the  stations  or  inns  where  wo 
stopped.  I  was  told,  in  explanation,  that  this  line  would  soon 

*  Sco  iny  "  Travels  in  North  America,"  voL  i.  p.  93  ;  an<!  the  colored 
^•eulo.'icrtl  map,  ! 


CHAP.  XVI.]  WILMINGTON.  219 

be  superseded,  or  nearly  so,  by  a  more  inland  road  now  making 
through  Haleigh.  We  reached  Wilmington  without  much  de 
lay,  in  spite  of  the  ice  on  the  rails,  and  the  running  of  our  loco 
motive  engine  against  a  cow.  On  approaching  that  town,  we 
were  glad  to  see  that  the  ground  was  not  covered  with  snow  as 
every  where  to  the  northward,  and  our  eyes  were  refreshed  by 
the  sigl^pf  verdure,  caused  by  the  pines,  and  by  two  kinds  of 
evergree»f  oaks,  besides  magnolias,  and  an  undergrowth  of  holly 
and  kalmia.  In  the  streets  and  suburbs  of  Wilmington,  the 
Pride-of-India  tree  (Melia  azedarach)  is  very  conspicuous,  some 
of  them  twenty-five  years  old,  having  survived  many  a  severe 
frost,  especially  that  of  the  autumn  of  the  present  year,  the  se 
verest  since  1835.  There  are  also  some  splendid  live  oaks  here 
(Quercus  virens),  a  tree  of  very  slow  growth,  which  furnishes 
the  finest  timber  for  ship-building. 

We  reached  Wilmington  after  the  steamboat  for  Charleston 
had  departed,  and  I  was  not  sorry  to  have  a  day  to  collect  ter 
tiary  fossils  in  the  cliffs  near  the  town.  The  streets  which  had 
just  been  laid  in  ashes  when  we  were  here  four  years  ago,  are 
now  rebuilt ;  but  there  has  been  another  fire  this  year,  imputed 
very  generally  to  incendiaries,  because  it  broke  out  in  many 
places  at  once.  There  had  been  a  deficiency  of  firemen,  owing 
to  the  state  having  discontinued  the  immunity  from  militia  duty, 
formerly  conceded  to  those  who  served  the  fire-engines.  The 
city,  however,  has  now  undertaken  to  find  substitutes  for  young 
men  who  will  join  the  fire  companies.  A  lady  told  me  that, 
when  the  conflagration  burst  forth  very  suddenly,  she  was  with 
a  merchant  whose  house  was  not  insured,  and,  finding  him  panic- 
struck,  and  incapable  of  acting  for  himself,  she  had  selected  his 
ledgers  and  other  valuables,  and  was  carrying  them  away  to  her 
own  house  ;  but  on  the  way  the  civic  guard  stopped  her  in  the 
dark,  and,  suspecting  her  to  be  a  person  of  color,  required  her  to 
show  her  pass.  She  mentioned  this  incidentally,  as  a  serious 
cause  of  delay  when  time  was  precious  ;  but  it  brought  home 
forcibly  to  our  minds  the  extraordinary  precautions  which  one 
half  the  population  here  think  it  necessary  to  take  against  the 
other  half. 


220  SMITHFIELD,  NORTH  CAROLINA.         [CHAP.  XVI. 

A  large  export  of  turpentine  is  the  chief  business  of  this  port, 
and  gashes  are  seen  cut  in  the  bark  of  the  pines  in  the  neighbor 
ing  forest,  from  which  resin  exudes.  The  half  decayed  wood  of 
these  resinous  pines  forms  what  is  called  light  wood,  burning 
with  a  most  brilliant  flame,  and  often  used  for  candles,  as  well 
as  for  reviving  the  fire.  A  North  Carolinian  is  said  to  migrate 
most  unwillingly  to  any  new  region  where  this  prime  luxury  of 
life  is  wanting. 

When  we  sailed  for  Charleston,  the  steamer  first  proceeded 
thirty  miles  to  the  mouth  of  the  Cape  Fear  river,  and  then  an 
chored  there  for  several  hours  at  a  village  called  Smith  field,  in 
North  Carolina.  Here  I  strolled  along  the  shore,  and  in  a  few 
minutes  found  myself  in  a  wild  region,  out  of  sight  of  all  human 
habitations,  and  every  sign  of  the  work  of  man's  hands.  The 
soil,  composed  of  white  quartzose  sand,  was  hopelessly  barren. 
Coming  to  a  marsh,  I  put  up  many  peewits,  which  flew  round 
me,  uttering  a  cry  resembling  that  of  our  European  species.  The 
evergreen  oaks  round  the  marsh  were  hung  with  Spanish  moss, 
or  Tiilandsia,  the  pods  of  which  are  now  full  of  downy  seeds. 
This  plant  is  not  a  parasite  like  the  misletoe,  of  which  a  species 
is  also  common  on  the  trees  here,  but  simply  supports  itself  on 
trees,  without  sending  any  roots  into  them,  or  drawing  nourish 
ment  from  their  juices.  It  is  what  the  botanists  call  an  epiphyte, 
and  is  precisely  the  same  species  ( Tiilandsia  usncoides),  which 
is  also  common  in  Brazil ;  so  that  as  we  journey  southward,  this 
flowering  epiphyte,  together  with  the  palmetto,  or  fan-palm,  may 
be  regarded  as  marking  an  approach  toward  a  more  tropical  veg 
etation.  When  dried,  the  outer  soft  part  of  the  .Tillandsia  de 
cays  and  leaves  a  woody  fiber  in  the  middle,  much  resembling 
horse-hair  in  appearance,  and  very  elastic.  It  is  used  in  the 
United  States,  and  exported  to  Liverpool,  for  stuffing  mattresses. 
In  preparing  it  they  first  bury  the  moss,  and  then  take  it  up 
again  when  the  exterior  coating  has  rotted  off.  The  birds  also 
select  only  the  woody  fiber  of  the  withered  or  dead  stems  for 
building  their  nests. 

On  the  morning  of  Christmas-day,  we  reached  Charleston,  S.C., 
and  found  the  interior  of  the  Episcopal  church  of  St.  Philip 


CHAP.  XVI.]  CHARLESTON.  221 

adorned  with  evergreens  and  with  artificial  flowers,  in  imitation 
of  magnolias  and  asters.  During  the  whole  service  the  boys  in 
the  streets  were  firing  pistols  and  letting  off  fireworks,  which  re 
minded  me  of  the  liberal  expenditure  of  gunpowder  indulged  in 
by  the  Roman  Catholics  in  Sicily,  when  celebrating  Christmas 
in  the  churches.  I  once  heard  a  file  of  soldiers  at  Girgenti  fire 
off  their  muskets  inside  a  church.  Here  at  least  it  was  on  the 
outside  ;  but,  as  it  was  no  part  of  the  ceremony,  it  was  a  greater 
interruption  to  the  service.  We  saw  some  of  the  white  race  very 
shabbily  dressed,  and  several  mulattoes  in  the  church,  separated 
from  the  whites,  in  fashionable  attire,  which  doubtless  they  were 
fully  entitled  to  wear,  being  much  richer,  j  Instead  of  growing 
reconciled  to  the  strong  line  of  demarkation  drawn  between  the 
two  races,  it  appears  to  me  more  and  more  unnatural,  for  I  some 
times  discover  that  my  American  companions  can  not  tell  me, 
without  inquiry,  to  which  race  certain  colored  individuals  belong  ; 
and  some  English  men  and  women,  of  dark  complexion,  might 
occasionally  be  made  to  feel  aivkward,  if  they  were  traveling  with 
us  here.  On  one  occasion,  the  answer  to  my  query  was,  "  If  I 
could  get  sight  of  his  thumb  nail  I  could  tell  you."  It  appears 
that  the  white  crescent,  at  the  base  of  the  nail,  is  wholly  want 
ing  in  the  full  blacks,  and  is  that  peculiarity  which  they  acquire 
the  last  as  they  approximate  by  intermixture,  in  the  course  of 
generations,  toward  the  whites. 

I  have  just  seen  the  following  advertisement  in  a  newspaper  : 
— "  Runaway. — Reward.  A  liberal  reward  will  be  given  for 
the  arrest  of  a  boy  named  Dick.  He  is  a  bright  mulatto — so 
bright,  that  he  can  readily,  as  he  has  done  before,  pass  himself 
for  a  white.  He  is  about  thirty  years  of  age,"  &c.  Another  ad 
vertisement  of  a  runaway  negro;  states,  "  his  color  is  moderated 
by  in-door  work." 

So  long  as  the  present  system  continues,  the  idea  of  future 
amalgamation  must  be  repugnant  to  the  dominant  race.  They 
would  shrink  from  it  just  as  a  European  noble  would  do,  if  he 
were  told  that  his  grandchild  or  great  grandchild  would  inter 
marry  with  the  direct  descendant  of  one  of  his  menial  servants. 
That  the  alleged  personal  dislike  of  the  two  races  toward  each 


222  DISPUTE  WITH  MASSACHUSETTS.        [CHAP.  XVI. 

other,  so  much  insisted  upon  by  many  writers,  must  arise  chiefly 
from  prejudice,  seems  proved,  not  only  by  the  mixture  of  the 
races,  but  by  the  manner  in  which  we  see  the  Southern  women, 
when  they  are  ill,  have  three  or  four  female  slaves  to  sleep  on 
the  floor  of  their  sick  room,  and  often  consign  their  babes  to  black 
nurses  to  be  suckled. 

That  the  attainder  of  blood  should  outlast  all  trace  of  African 
features,  betrays  a  feeling  allied  to  the  most  extravagant  aristo 
cratic  pride  of  the  feudal  ages,  and  stands  out  in  singular  relief 
and  contrast  here  in  the  South,  where  the  whites,  high  and  low, 
ignorant  arid  educated,  are  striving  among  themselves  to  main 
tain  a  standard  of  social  equality,  in  defiance  of  all  the  natural 
distinctions  which  difference  of  fortune,  occupation,  and  degrees 
of  refinement  give  rise  to. 

A  few  years  ago  a  ship  from  Massachusetts  touched  at  Charles 
ton,  having  some  free  blacks  on  board,  the  steward  and  cook  being 
of  the  number.  On  their  landing,  they  were  immediately  put 
into  jail  by  virtue  of  a  law  of  South  Carolina,  not  of  very  old 
standing.  The  government  of  Massachusetts,  in  a  state  of  great 
indignation,  sent  a  lawyer  to  investigate  the  case  and  remonstrate. 
This  agent  took  up  his  abode  at  the  Charleston  Hotel,  where  we 
are  now  comfortably  established.  A  few  days  after  his  arrival, 
the  hotel  was  surrounded,  to  the  terror  of  all  the  inmates,  by  a 
mob  of  "  gentlemen,"  who  were  resolved  to  seize  the  New  Erf* 
gland  envoy.  There  is  no  saying  to  what  extremities  they  would 
have  proceeded,  had  not  the  lawyer's  daughter,  a  spirited  girl,  re 
fused  to  leave  the  hotel.  The  excitement  lasted  five  days,  and 
almost  every  northern  man  in  Charleston  was  made  to  feel  him 
self  in  personal  danger.  At  length,  by  the  courage  and  energy 
of  some  of  the  leading  citizens,  Mr.  H was  enabled  to  es 
cape,  and  then  the  most  marked  attentions  were  paid,  and  civili 
ties  offered,  to  the  young  lady,  his  daughter,  by  the  families  of 
the  very  men  who  had  thought  it  right,  "  on  principle,"  to  get 
up  this  riot.  The  same  law  has  given  rise  to  some  very  awk 
ward  disputes  with  the  captains  of  English  vessels,  whose  color 
ed,  sailors  have,  in  like  mariner,  been  imprisoned.  To  obtain  re 
dress  for  the  injury,  in  such  cases,  is  impossible.  The  Federal 


CHAP.  XVI.]  SOCIETY  IN  CHARLESTON.  223 

Government  is  too  weak  to  enforce  its  authority,  and  the  sover 
eign  state  is  sheltered  under  the  segis  of  the  grand  confederacy. 

JBy  virtue  of  a  similar  law,  also,  in  force  in  Alabama,  tho 
crews  of  several  vessels,  consisting  of  free  blacks,  have  been  com 
mitted  to  jail  at  Mobile,  and  the  captains  obliged  to  pay  the  costs, 
and  give  bonds  to  carry  them  away. 

I  asked  a  New  England  merchant,  who  is  here,  why  the  city 
of  Charleston  did  not  increase,  having  such  a  noble  harbor.  He 
said,  "  There  have  been  several  great  fires,  and  the  rich  are  ab 
sentees  for  half  the  year,  flying  from  malaria.  Besides,  you  will 
find  that  large  cities  do  not  grow  in  slave  states  as  in  the  North. 
Few,  if  any  of  the  ships,  now  in  this  harbor,  belong  to  merchants 
of  Charleston." 

We  were  as  much  pleased  with  what  we  saw  of  the  society  of 
Charleston,  during  this  short  visit,  as  formerly,  when  we  were 
here  in  1842.  I  have  heard  its  exclusiveness  much  commented 
on ;  for  there  are  many  families  here,  whose  ancestors  started 
from  genteel  English  stocks  in  Virginia  two  hundred  years  ago, 
and  they  and  some  of  the  eminent  lawyers  and  others,  who,  by 
their  education  and  talents,  have  qualified  themselves  to  be  re 
ceived  into  the  same  circle,  do  not  choose  to  associate  on  intimate 
terms  with  every  one  who  may  happen  to  come  and  settle  in  the 
place.  There  is  nearly  as  wide  a  range  in  the  degrees  of  refine 
ment  of  manners  in  American  as  in  European  society,  and,  to 
counterbalance  some  unfavorable  circumstances,  the  social  system 
has  also  some  advantages.  There  is  too  great  a  predominance 
of  the  mercantile  class,  and  the  democracy  often  selects  rude  and 
unpolished  favorites  to  fill  stations  of  power  ;  but  such  men  are 
scarcely  ever  without  some  talent.  On  the  other  hand,  mere 
wealth  is  less  worshiped  than  in  England,  and  there  is  no  rank 
and  title  to  force  men  of  slender  abilities,  and  without  even  agree 
able  manners,  into  good  company,  or  posts  of  political  importance. 

The  treatment  in  the  southern  states  of  governesses,  who 
usually  come  from  the  North  or  from  England,  is  very  kind  and 
considerate.  They  are  placed  on  a  much  greater  footing  of 
equality  with  the  family  in  which  they  live,  than  in  England. 
Occasionally  we  find  that  the  mother  of  the  children  has  staid  at 


224  WAR-PANIC.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

home,  in  order  that  the  teacher  may  take  her  turn,  and  go  out  to 
a  party.  This  system  implies  a  great  sacrifice  of  domestic  pri 
vacy  ;  but  when  the  monotony  of  the  daily  routine  of  lessons  is 
thus  relieved  to  the  instructress,  the  pupil  must  also  be  a  gainer. 
Their  salaries  are  from  50  to  100  guineas,  which  is  more  than 
they  receive  in  the  northern  states. 

The  negroes  here  have  certainly  not  the  manners  of  an  op 
pressed  race.  One  evening,  when  we  had  gone  out  to  dine  in 
the  suburbs,  in  a  close  carriage,  the  same  coachman  returned  for 
us  at  night  with  an  open  vehicle.  It  was  very  cold,  the  frost 
having  been  more  intense  this  year  than  any  winter  since  1835, 
and  I  remonstrated  strongly  ;  but  the  black  driver,  as  he  shut 
the  door,  said,  with  a  good-humored  smile,  "  that  all  the  other 
carriages  of  his  master  were  engaged  ;"  and  added,  "  Never 
mind,  it  will  soon  be  over  !" 

One  of  the  judges  of  the  Admiralty  Court  tells  me  that,  on 
Christmas  eve,  the  day  we  came  here,  at  nine  o'clock  at  night, 
when  he  was  just  going  to  bed,  an  English  resident  came  to  him 
whose  mind  was  so  full  of  the  prevailing  war-panic,  that  nothing 
would  satisfy  him  but  the  obtaining  immediate  letters  of  natural 
ization.  He  seemed  to  think  that  hostilities  with  England 
might  break  out  in  the  course  of  the  night,  and  that,  in  conse 
quence,  all  his  property  would  be  confiscated.  He  was  accord 
ingly  enrolled  as  a  citizen,  "  although,"  said  the  judge,  "  we  shall 
not  gain  much  by  his  courage,  should  we  have  to  defend  Charles 
ton  against  a  British  fleet." 

Some  months  ago  a  British  post-office  steam-ship  sailed  into 
the  harbor  here,  and  took  soundings  in  various  places,  and  this 
incident  has  given  offense  to  many,  although  in  reality  the  sur 
vey  was  made  under  the  expectation  that  the  proposed  scheme 
for  extending  the  line  of  British  West  India  mail-steamers  along 
this  coast  would  soon  take  effect. 

I  asked  -a  South  Carolinian,  a  friend  of  peace,  and  one  who 
thinks  that  a  war  would  ruin  the  maritime  states,  why  so  many 
of  the  people  betrayed  so  much  sympathy  with  the  hostile  demon 
stration  got  up  by  the  press  against  England.  "  We  have  a  set 
of  demagogues,"  he  replied,  « in  this  country,  who  trade  on  the 


CHAP.  XVI.]  ANTI-ENGLISH  FEELING.  305 

article  called  <  hatred  to  England/  as  so  much  political  capital, 
just  as  a  southern  merchant  trades  in  cotton,  or  a  Canadian  one 
in  lumber.  They  court  the  multitude  by  blustering  and  by 
threatening  England.  There  is  a  natural  leaning  in  the  South 
toward  Great  Britain,  as  furnishing  a  market  for  their  cotton, 
and  they  are  averse  to  the  high  tariff'  which  the  northerners  have 
inflicted  on  them.  But  these  feelings  are  neutralized  by  a  dis 
like  of  the  abolitionist  party  in  England,  and  by  a  strong  spirit 
of  antagonism  to  Great  Britain,  which  the  Irish  bring  over  here. 
All  these  sources  of  estrangement,  however,  are  as  nothing  in 
comparison  with  the  baneful  effect  of  your  press,  and  its  persever 
ing  misrepresentation  of  every  thing  American.  Almost  every 
white  man  here  is  a  reader  and  a  politician,  and  all  that  is  said 
against  us  in  England  is  immediately  cited  in  our  newspapers, 
because  it  serves  to  augment  that  political  capital  of  which  I 
have  spoken."  I  remarked  that  the  nation  arid  its  government 
are  not  answerable  for  all  the  thoughtless  effusions  of  anonymous 
newspaper  writers,  and  that  the  tone  of  the  English  journals, 
since  the  agitation  of  the  Oregon  affair,  had  been  temperate, 
guarded,  and  even  courteous.  "It  is  very  true,"  he  said  ;  "  the 
Times,  in  particular,  formerly  one  of  the  most  insolent  and  ma 
lignant.  But  the  change  has  been  too  sudden,  and  the  motive 
too  transparent.  The  English  know  that  the  world  can  never 
suspect  them  of  want  of  courage  if  they  show  a  disinclination  to 
go  to  war.  Not  wishing  to  waste  their  blood  and  treasure  for 
so  useless  a  possession  as  Oregon,  they  are  behaving  like  a  man 
who,  having  insulted  another,  has  no  mind,  when  called  out,  to 
fight  a  duel  about  nothing.  He  therefore  makes  an  apology. 
But  such  civility  will  not  last,  and  if  the  anonymous  abuse 
habitually  indulged  in.  were  not  popular,  it  would  long  ago  have 
ceased." 

A  short  time  after  this  conversation,  I  fell  in  with  a  young 
officer  of  the  American  navy  who  was  wishing  for  war,  partly 
for  the  sake  of  active  service,  but  chiefly  from  intense  nationality. 
"  We  may  get  the  worst  of  it,"  he  said,  "for  a  year  or  two,  but 
England  will  not  come  out  of  the  struggle  without  being  forced 
to  acknowledge  that  she  has  had  to  deal  with  a  first-rate  instead 

K* 


226  ANTI-ENGLISH  FEELING.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

of  a  second-rate  power."  Soon  after  this  T  met  an  English 
sportsman,  who  had  been  traveling  for  his  amusement  in  the 
western  states,  where  he  had  been  well  received,  and  liked  the 
people  much,  but  many  of  them  had  told  him,  "  We  must  have 
a  brush  with  the  English  before  they  will  respect  us." 

This  sentiment  is  strong  with  a  certain  party  throughout  the 
Union,  and  would  have  no  existence  if  they  did  not  respect  the 
English,  and  wish  in  their  hearts  to  have  their  good  opinion. 
It  may  be  well  for  an  old  nation  to  propound  the  doctrine  that 
every  people  ought  to  rest  on  their  own  dignity,  and  be  satisfied 
with  their  place  in  the  world  without  troubling  themselves  about 
what  others  think  of  them,  or  running  the  risk  of  having  applied 
to  them  the  character  which  Goldsmith  ascribed  to  the  French 
of  his  times  : — 

"  Where  the  weak  soul  within  itself  unblest, 
Leans  for  support  upon  another's  breast." 

But  they  whose  title  to  consideration  is  new,  however  real,  will 
rarely  occupy  their  true  place  unless  they  take  it ;  whereas  an 
older  nation  has  seldom  to  assert  its  claims,  and  they  are  often 
freely  conceded,  long  after  it  has  declined  from  its  former  power. 
To  an  ambitious  nation,  feeding  its  imagination  with  anticipations 
of  coming  greatness,  it  is  peculiarly  mortifying  to  find  that  what 
they  have  actually  achieved  is  barely  acknowledged.  They  grow 
boastful  and  impatient  to  display  their  strength.  When  they 
are  in  this  mood,  no  foreign  country  should  succumb  to  them  ; 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  equally  impolitic  and  culpable  to 
irritate  them  by  disparagement,  or  by  not  yielding  to  them  their 
proper  place  among  the  nations.  "  You  class  us,"  said  one  of 
their  politicians  to  me  in  Washington,  "  with  the  South  American 
republics  ;  your  embassadors  to  us  come  from  Brazil  and  Mexico 
to  Washington,  and  consider  it  a  step  in  their  advancement  to  go 
from  the  United  States  to  Spain,  or  some  second-rate  German 
court,  having  a  smaller  population  than  two  of  our  large  states. 
Yet,  in  reality,  where  is  there  a  people  in  the  world,  except 
France,  with  which  it  so  much  concerns  you  to  live  in  amity  as 
the  United  States,  and  with  what  other  nation  have  you  and 
your  chief  colonies  so  much  commercial  intercourse  ?" 


CHAP.  XVI.]  DR.  BACHMAN'S  ZOOLOGY.  227 

On  listening  to  complaints  against  the  English  press,  my 
thoughts  often  recurred  to  Bonaparte's  prosecution  of  the  royalist 
emigrant,  Peltier,  after  the  peace  of  Amiens,  February,  1803, 
and  the  appeal  to  the  jury  of  Sir  James  Mackintosh,  as  counsel 
for  the  defendant,  on  the  want  of  dignity  on  the  part  of  the  First 
Consul,  then  in  reality  the  most  powerful  sovereign  in  Europe, 
in  persecuting  a  poor,  defenseless,  and  proscribed  exile,  for  abusive 
editorial  articles.  The  court  and  jury  were  probably  of  the  same 
mind  ;  but  the  verdict  of  guilty  showed  that  they  deemed  it  no 
light  matter  that  the  peace  of  two  great  nations  should  be  dis 
turbed,  by  permitting  anonymous  libels,  or  a  continued  outpour 
ing  of  invective  and  vituperation,  calculated  to  provoke  the  ruler 
of  a  friendly  country.  In  America  the  sovereign  people  read 
every  thing  written  against  them,  as  did  Napoleon  to  the  last, 
and,  like  him,  with  unmitigated  resentment. 

Before  leaving  Charleston  I  called  on  Dr.  Bachman,  whose 
acquaintance  I  had  made  in  1842,  and  was  glad  to  see  on  his 
table  the  first  volumes  of  a  joint  work  by  himself  and  Audubon, 
on  the  land  quadrupeds  of  North  America.  These  authors  will 
give  colored  figures  and  descriptions  of  no  less  than  200  mam 
malia,  exclusive  of  cetacea,  all  inhabiting  this  continent  between 
the  southern  limits  of  the  Arctic  region  and  the  Tropic  of  Cancer, 
for  they  now  include  Texas  in  the  United  States.  Not  more 
than  seventy-six  species  are  enumerated  by  preceding  naturalists, 
and  several  of  these  are  treated  by  Bachman  and  Audubon  not 
as  true  species  but  mere  varieties.  Their  industry,  however,  in 
augmenting  the  list  of  new  discoveries,  is  not  always  welcomed 
by  the  subscribers,  one  of  whom  has  just  written  to  say,  "  if  you 
describe  so  many  squirrels,  I  can  not  go  on  taking  in  your  book." 
The  tribe  alluded  to  in  this  threatening  epistle,  especially  the 
striped  species,  is  most  fully  represented  in  North  America,  a 
continent  so  remarkable  for  its  extent  of  woodland  and  the  variety 
of  its  forest  trees.  Yet,  after  traveling  so  much  in  the  woods,  I 
had  never  got  sight  of  more  than  three  or  four  species,  owing,  I 
am  informed,  to  their  nocturnal  habits.  I  regretted  that  I  had 
not  yet  seen  the  flying  squirrel  in  motion,  and  was  surprised  to 
hear  that  Dr.  Bachman  had  observed  about  a  hundred  of  them 


228  DR.  BACHMAN'S  ZOOLOGY.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

every  evening,  for  several  weeks,  near  Philadelphia,  on  two  tall 
oaks,  in  the  autumn,  when  acorns  and  chestnuts  were  abundant, 
and  when  they  had  spare  time  for  play.  They  were  amusing 
themselves  by  passing  from  one  tree  to  another,  throwing  them 
selves  off  from  the  top  of  one  of  the  oaks,  and  descending  at  a 
considerable  angle  to  near  the  base  of  the  other  ;  then  inclining 
the  head  upward  just  before  reaching  the  ground,  so  as  to  turn  and 
alight  on  the  trunk,  which  they  immediately  climbed  up  to  repeat 
the  same  mano3uvre.  In  this  way  there  was  almost  a  continuous 
flight  of  them  crossing  each  other  in  the  air  between  the  two  trees. 

I  had  heard  much  of  the  swamp-rabbit,  which  they  hunt  near 
the  coast  in  South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  and  was  glad  to  see  a 
stuffed  specimen.  It  is  an  aquatic  hare  (Lepus  palustris),  diving 
most  nimbly,  and  outswimming  a  Newfoundland  dog. 

Dr.  Bachman  pointed  out  to  me  ten  genera  of  birds,  and  ten 
of  quadrupeds,  all  peculiar  to  North  America,  but  each  repre 
sented  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  by  distinct 
species.  The  theory  of  specific  centers,  or  the  doctrine  that  the 
original  stock  of  each  species  of  bird  and  quadruped  originated  in 
one  spot  only,  may  explain  in  a  satisfactory  manner  one  part  of 
this  phenomenon  ;  for  we  may  assume  that  a  lofty  chain  of 
mountains  opposed  a  powerful  barrier  to  migration,  and  that  the 
mountains  were  more  ancient  than  the  introduction  of  these  par 
ticular  quadrupeds  and  birds  into  the  planet.  But  the  limitation 
of  peculiar  generic  types  to  certain  geographical  areas,  now  ob 
served  in  so  many  parts  of  the  globe,  points  to  some  other  and 
higher  law  governing  the  creation  of  species  itself,  which  in  the 
present  state  of  science  is  inscrutable  to  us,  and  may,  perhaps, 
remain  a  mystery  forever.  The  adaptation  of  peculiar  forms, 
instincts,  qualities,  and  organizations  to  the  present  geography 
and  climate  of  a  region,  may  be  a  part  only  of  the  conditions 
which  govern  in  every  case  the  relations  of  the  animate  beings 
to  their  habitations.  The  past  condition  and  changes  of  the 
globe  and  its  inhabitants,  throughout  the  whole  period  when  the 
different  beings  were  entering,  each  in  succession,  upon  the  scene, 
and  all  the  future  conditions  and  changes  to  the  end  of  vast 
periods,  during  which  they  may  be  destined  to  exist,  ought  to  be 


CHAP.  XVI.]  RATTLE-SNAKES.  229 

known,  before  we  can  expect  to  comprehend  why  certain  types 
were  originally  selected  for  certain  areas,  whether  of  land  or  water. 

In  the  museum  of  the  Medical  College,  Professor  Shepard 
showed  me  a  fine  specimen  of  the  large  rattle-snake  of  South 
Carolina  (Crotalm  adamantinus),  preserved  in  spirits.  It 
was  said  to  have  been  nine  years  old,  having  six  rattles,  the 
tail  acquiring  one  annually  after  the  third  year.  When  brought 
into  the  laboratory  in  winter  in  a  torpid  state,  an  electric  shock 
had  been  communicated  to  it,  which  threw  it  into  a  state  of 
extreme  excitement.  Two  tortoises,  nearly  torpid,  were  also 
put  by  the  professor  into  a  glass  bell  filled  with  laughing  gas,  and 
they  immediately  began  to  leap  about  with  great  agility,  arid  con 
tinued  in  this  state  of  muscular  excitement  for  more  than  an  hour. 

In  both  my  tours  in  America,  I  heard  stories  not  only  of  dogs, 
which  had  died  suddenly  from  the  bite  of  rattle-snakes,  but  men 
also  ;  and  the  venom  is  said  to  be  more  virulent  in  the  south.  I  re 
joiced,  therefore,  that  I  had  chosen  the  coldest  season  for  my  visit 
to  these  latitudes  ;  but  it  seemed  singular  that  in  my  wanderings 
to  explore  the  rocks  in  various  states,  I  had  never  yet  got  sight  of 
a  single  snake,  or  heard  its  rattle.  That  they  make  a  much  greater 
figure  in  books  of  travels  than  in  real  life,  I  can  not  but  suspect. 

Almost  all  the  best  houses  in  Charleston  are  built  with  veran 
dahs,  and  surrounded  with  gardens.  In  some  of  the  streets  we 
admired  the  beautiful  evergreens,  and  remarked  among  them  the 
Prunus  virginiana,  with  black  cherries  hanging  to  it,  and  Mag 
nolia  grandiflora.  The  number  of  turkey  buzzards  is  surprising. 
I  have  seen  nine  of  them  perched  side  by  side,  like  so  many 
bronze  statues,  breaking  the  long  line  of  a  roof  in  the  clear  blue 
sky,  while  others  were  soaring  in  the  air,  each  feather,  at  the 
extremity  of  their  extended  wings,  being  spread  out,  so  as  to  be 
seen  separate  from  the  rest.  A  New  England  friend,  whom  we 
met  here,  seeing  my  interest  in  these  birds,  told  me  they  are  the 
sole  scavengers  of  the  place,  and  a  fine  of  five  dollars  is  imposed 
on  any  person  who  kills  one.  "  You  are  lucky  in  being  here  in 
a  3old  season  ;  if  you  should  come  back  in  summer,  you  would 
think  that  these  vultures  had  a  right  to  the  whole  city,  it  stinks 
so  intolerably." 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

Charleston  to  Savannah. — Beaufort  River,  or  Inland  Navigation  in  South 
Carolina. — Slave  Stealer. — Cockspur  Island. — Rapid  Growth  of  Oysters. 
— Eagle  caught  by  Oyster. — Excursion  from  Savannah  to  Skiddaway 
Island. — Megatherium  and  Mylodon. — Cabbage  Palms,  or  Tree  Palmet 
tos. — Deceptive  Appearance  of  Submarine  Forest. — Alligators  swallow 
ing  Flints. — Their  Tenacity  of  Life  when  decapitated. — Grove  of  Live 
Oaks. — Slaves  taken  to  Free  States. 

Dec.  28,  1845. — A  FINE  steam-ship,  the  General  Clinch, 
conveyed  us  to  Savannah.  I  was  surprised,  when  sailing  out 
of  the  beautiful  harbor  of  Charleston,  on  a  bright  scorching  day, 
to  see  a  cloud  of  smoke  hanging  over  the  town,  and  learned  that 
they  burn  here  not  a  little  of  what  is  called  Liverpool  coal. 
Among  others  on  board,  was  a  female  passenger  from  one  of  the 
western  states,  who,  having  heard  rne  make  inquiries  for  my 
wife,  went  up  to  her  in  the  ladies'  cabin  and  said,  "  Your  old 
man  is  mighty  eager  to  see  you  ;"  "  old  man,"  as  we  afterward 
found,  being  synonymous  with  husband  in  the  West.  We  were 
to  go  by  the  inland  navigation,  or  between  the  islands  and  the 
coast.  After  passing  Edisto  Point,  we  ran  aground  at  the  en 
trance  of  St.  Helena's  Sound,  in  mid-passage,  and  were  detained 
some  hours  till  the  tide  floated  us  off  to  the  westward,  through 
the  winding  mazes  of  a  most  intricate  channel,  called  the  Beau 
fort  River.  We  passed  between  low  sandy  islands,  and  an 
equally  low  mainland,  covered  with  evergreen  oaks,  and  long- 
leaved  pines  and  palmettos,  six  or  seven  feet  high.  Sometimes 
we  sailed  by  a  low  bluff  or  cliff  of  white  sand,  two  or  three  feet 
in  height,  then  by  a  cotton  plantation,  then  by  large  salt  marshes 
covered  with  reeds,  on  which  the  cattle  are  supported  when  fod 
der  is  scarce  in  winter.  The  salt  water  in  this  narrow  channel 
was  as  calm  as  a  lake,  and  perfectly  clear.  Numerous  wild 
ducks  were  diving  as  our  steamboat  approached,  and  beds  of 
oysters  were  uncovered  between  high  and  low  water  mark.  It 


CHAP.  XVII.]  BEAUFORT.  231 

was  a  novel  and  curious  scene,  especially  when  we  approached 
Beaufort,  a  picturesque  town  composed  of  an  assemblage  of  villas, 
the  summer  residences  of  numerous  planters,  who  retire  here 
during  the  hot  season,  when  the  interior  of  South  Carolina  is  un 
healthy  for  the  whites.  Each  villa  is  shaded  by  a  verandah, 
surrounded  by  beautiful  live  oaks  and  orange  trees  laden  with 
fruit,  though  with  leaves  slightly  tinged  by  the  late  severe  frost. 
It  is  hoped  that  these  orange  trees  will  not  suffer  as  they  did  in 
February,  1835,  for  then  the  cold  attacked  them  much  later  in 
the  season,  and  after  the  sap  had  risen.  The  Pride-of-India  tree, 
with  its  berries  now  ripe,  is  an  exotic  much  in  favor  here.  A 
crowd  of  negroes,  in  their  gay  Sunday  clothes,  came  down  to 
look  at  our  steamboat,  grinning  and  chattering,  and  looking, 
as  usual,  perfectly  free  from  care,  but  so  ugly,  that  although 
they  added  to  the  singularity  and  foreign  aspect  of  the  scene, 
they  detracted  greatly  from  its  charms. 

Had  it  not  been  for  the  dense  beds  of  oysters  between  high 
and  low  water  mark,  hundreds  of  which  adhere  to  the  timbers  of 
the  pier  at  Beaufort,  as  barnacles  do  in  our  English  ports,  I  might 
have  supposed  the  channel  to  be  really  what  it  is  called,  a  river. 

An  old  Spanish  fort,  south  of  Beaufort,  reminded  me  that  this 
region  had  once  belonged  to  the  Spaniards,  who  built  St.  Augus 
tine,  still  farther  to  the  south,  the  oldest  city  in  the  United 
States,  and  I  began  to  muse  on  the  wonderful  history  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race  in  settling  these  southern  states.  To  have 
overcome  and  driven  out  in  so  short  a  time  Indians,  Spaniards, 
and  French,  arid  yet,  after  all,  to  be  doomed  to  share  the  terri 
tory  with  three  millions  of  negroes  ! 

Of  this  latter  race,  we  had  not  a  few  passengers  on  board. 
Going  into  the  steerage  to  converse  with  some  of  them,  my  curi 
osity  was  particularly  attracted  to  a  group  of  three,  who  were 
standing  by  themselves.  The  two  younger,  a  girl  and  a  lad, 
were  very  frank,  and  willing  to  talk  with  me,  but  I  was  imme 
diately  joined  by  a  young  white  man,  not  ill-looking,  but  who 
struck  me  as  having  a  very  determined  countenance  for  his  age. 
"  These  colored  people,"  he  said,  "  whom  you  have  been  speaking 
to,  belong  to  me,  and  they  have  probably  told  you  that  I  have 


232  SLAVE  STEALER.  [CHAP.  XVII. 

brought  them  by  railway  from  Augusta  to  Charleston.  I  hope 
to  dispose  of  them  at  Savannah,  but  if  not,  I  shall  take  them  to 
Texas,  where  I  may  sell  them,  or  perhaps  keep  them  as  laborers 
and  settle  there  myself."  He  then  told  me  he  had  fought  in  the 
wars  for  the  independence  of  Texas,  which  I  afterward  found  was 
quite  true,  and,  after  telling  me  some  of  his  adventures,  he  said, 
"  I  will  take  450  dollars  for  the  girl,  and  600  for  the  boy  ;  they 
are  both  of  pure  blood,  would  stand  a  hot  climate  well  ;  they  can 
not  read,  but  can  count  up  to  a  thousand."  By  all  these  quali- 
ities,  negative  and  positive,  he  evidently  expected  to  enhance  in 
my  eyes  the  value  of  the  article  which  he  meant  me  to  buy  ;  and 
no  sooner  did  he  suspect,  by  one  of  my  questions,  that  I  was  a 
foreigner  traveling  for  my  amusement,  than  he  was  off  the  sub 
ject,  and  I  attempted  in  vain  to  bring  him  back  to  it  and  to  learn 
why  the  power  of  counting  was  so  useful,  while  that  of  reading 
was  undesirable.  About  three  weeks  after  this  incident,  when 
we  were  at  Macon  in  Georgia,  there  was  a  rme  and  cry  after  a 
thief  who  had  stolen  five  negroes  near  Augusta,  and  had  taken 
them  to  Savannah,  in  the  General  Clinch,  where  he  had  sold  one 
of  them,  a  girl,  for  450  dollars.  From  Savannah  he  had  been 
traced  with  the  remaining  four,  by  railway,  to  Macon,  whence  it 
was  supposed  he  had  gone  south.  The  description  of  the  delin 
quent  left  me  no  doubt  that  he  was  my  former  fellow-traveler, 
and  I  now  learnt  that  he  was  of  a  respectable  family  in  Georgia, 
the  spoiled  child  of  a  widowed  mother,  self-willed  and  unmanage 
able  from  his  boyhood,  and  who  had  gone  off  against  the  wishes 
of  his  relations  to  fight  in  Texas.  I  recollected  that  when  we 
were  at  Beaufort,  none  of  his  negroes  had  gone  ashore,  and  that 
he  had  kept  his  eye  always  anxiously  on  them  during  our  stay 
there.  I  also  remarked,  that  the  planters  on  board,  who,  for  the 
most  part,  were  gentlemanlike  in  their  manners,  shunned  all  in 
tercourse  with  this  dealer,  as  if  they  regarded  his  business  as 
scarcely  respectable.  A  vast  majority  of  the  slave-owners  acqui 
esced  originally  in  the  propriety  of  abolishing  the  external  slave- 
trade  ;  but  the  internal  one  can  not,  they  say,  be  done  away 
with,  without  interfering  with  the  free  circulation  of  labor  from 
fin  overpeopled  district  to  another  where  hands  are  scarce.  To 


CHAP.  XVII.]       EAGLE  CAUGHT  BY  AN  OYSTER.  233 

check  this,  they  maintain,  would  injure  the  negroes  as  much  as 
their  masters.  When  they  are  forced  to  part  with  slaves,  they 
usually  sell  one  to  another,  and  are  unwilling  to  dispose  of  them 
to  a  stranger.  It  is  reckoned,  indeed,  quite  a  disgrace  to  a  negro 
to  be  so  discarded.  When  the  former  master  bids  for  one  of  his 
"  own  people,"  at  a  sale  of  property  forced  on  by  debt,  the  public 
are  unwilling  to  bid  against  him.  It  is  clear,  therefore,  that  a 
dealer  must  traffic  in  the  lowest  and  most  good-for-nothing  class 
of  laborers,  many  of  whom,  in  Europe,  would  be  in  the  hands  of 
policemen,  or  in  convict  ships  on  their  way  to  a  penal  settlement. 
I  heard  of  one  of  these  dealers,  who,  having  made  a  large  fortune, 
lived  sumptuously  in  one  of  the  towns  on  the  Mississippi  after 
retiring  from  business,  but  in  spite  of  some  influential  connections, 
he  was  not  able  to  make  his  way  into  the  best  society  of  the  place. 
At  the  mouth  of  the  Savannah  River  we  passed  Cockspur 
Island,  where  there  is  a  fort.  The  sea  is  said  to  have  encroach 
ed  many  hundred  yards  on  this  island  since  1740,  as  has  hap 
pened  at  other  points  on  this  low  coast ;  but  there  has  been  also 
a  gain  of  land  in  many  places.  An  officer  stationed  at  the  fort 
told  me,  that  when  a  moat  was  dug  and  the  sea-water  admitted, 
oysters  grew  there  so  fast,  that,  at  the  end  of  two  years,  they 
afforded  a  regular  supply  of  that  luxury  to  the  garrison.  The 
species  of  oyster  which  is  so  abundant  here  (Ostrea  virginica) 
resembles  our  European  Ostrea  edulis  in  shape,  when  it  lives 
isolated  and  grows  freely  under  water ;  but  those  individuals 
which  live  gregariously,  or  on  banks  between  high  and  low 
water,  lose  their  round  form  and  are  greatly  lengthened.  They 
are  called  racoon  oysters,  because  they  are  the  only  ones  which 
the  racoons  can  get  at  when  they  come  down  to  feed  at  low  tide. 
Capt.  Alexander,  of  the  U.S.  artillery,  told  me  that,  in  the  sum 
mer  of  1844,  he  saw  a  large  bald-headed  eagle,  Aquila  leucoce- 
phala,  which  might  measure  six  feet  from  tip  to  tip  of  its  ex 
tended  wings,  caught  near  the  bar  of  the  Savannah  river  by  one 
of  these  racoon  oysters.  The  eagle  had  perched  upon  the  shell 
fish  to  prey  upon  it,  when  the  mollusk  suddenly  closed  its  valves 
and  shut  in  the  bird's  claw,  and  would  have  detained  its  enemy 
till  the  rising  tide  had  come  up  and  drowned  it,  had  not  the  cap- 


234  EXCURSION  TO  SKIDDAWAY.  [CHAP.  XVII 

tain  in  his  boat  secured  it  with  a  noose,  and  disengaged  it  from 
the  oyster.  He  flapped  his  wings  violently  as  they  approached, 
but  could  not  escape. 

Dec.  29. — Savannah  has  a  population  of  12,000  souls,  but 
seems  rather  stationary,  though  some  new  buildings  are  rising. 
The  mildness  of  its  climate  is  attributed  partly  to  the  distance 
to  which  the  Alleghany  Mountains  retire  from  the  sea  coast  in 
this  latitude,  and  partly  to  the  proximity  of  the  Gulf-stream.  But 
many  of  the  northern  invalids,  who  are  consumptive,  and  had 
hoped  to  escape  a  winter  by  taking  refuge  in  this  city,  are  com 
plaining  of  the  frost,  and  say  that  the  houses  are  inadequately 
protected  against  cold.  The  sun  is  very  powerful  at  mid-day, 
and  we  see  the  Camellia  Japonica  in  the  gardens  flowering  in 
the  open  air  ;  but  the  leaves  of  the  orange  trees  look  crisp  and 
frost-bitten,  and  I  am  told  that  the  thermometer  lately  fell  as  low 
as  17°  Fahr.,  so  that  even  the  salt  water  froze  over  in  some  of 
the  marshes. 

While  at  Savannah  I  made  a  delightful  excursion,  in  com 
pany  with  Dr.  Le  Conte,  Captain  Alexander,  and  Mr.  Hodgson, 
to  Skiddaway,  one  of  the  sea-islands,  which  may  be  said  to  form 
part  of  a  great  delta  on  the  coast  of  Georgia,  between  the  mouths 
of  the  Savannah  and  Ogeechee  rivers.  This  alluvial  region  con 
sists  of  a  wide  extent  of  low  land  elevated  a  few  feet  above  high 
water,  and  intersected  by  numerous  creeks  and  swamps.  I  gave 
some  account  in  my  former  tour  of  my  visit  to  Heyner's  Bridge,* 
where  the  bones  of  the  extinct  mastodon  and  mylodon  were  found. 
Skiddaway  is  five  or  six  miles  farther  from  Savannah  in  the  same 
southeast  direction,  and  is  classical  ground  for  the  geologist,  for, 
on  its  northwest  end,  where  there  is  a  low  cliff  from  two  to  six 
feet  in  height,  no  less  than  three  skeletons  of  the  huge  Megathe 
rium  have  been  dug  up,  besides  the  remains  of  the  Mylodon, 
Elephas  primigenius,  Mastodon  giganteus,  and  a  species  of  the 
ox  tribe.  The  bones  occur  in  a  dark  peaty  soil  or  marsh  mud, 
above  which  is  a  stratum,  three  or  four  feet  thick,  of  sand,  charged 
with  oxide  of  iron,  and  below  them  and  beneath  the  sea  level, 
occurs  sand  containing  a  great  number  of  marine  fossil  shells,  all 
*  Travels  in  North  America,  vol.  i.  p.  163. 


CHAP.  XVII.] 


CABBAGE  PALM. 


235 


belonging  to  species  which  still  inhabit  the  neighboring  coast, 
showing  how  modern  is  the  date,  geologically  speaking,  of  the  ex 
tinct  animals,  since  they  were  evidently  posterior  to  the  existing 
molluscous  fauna  of  the  sea. 

The  scenery  of  the  low  flat  island  of  Skiddaway  had  more  of 
a  tropical  aspect  than  any  which  I  had  yet  seen  in  the  United 
States.  Several  distinct  species  of  palmetto,  or  fan  palm,  were 
common,  as  also  the  tree,  or  cabbage  palm,  a  noble  species,  which 

Fig.  6. 


Charruerops  Palmetto. 
Cabbage  Palm,  or  Tall  Palmetto,  Skiddaway  Island,  Georgia. 

I  had  never  seen  before.  In  some  of  the  cotton-fields  many  in 
dividuals  were  growing  singly,  having  been  planted  at  regular  in 
tervals  to  the  exclusion  of  all  other  trees,  and  were  from  twenty- 
five  to  forty  feet  in  height.  The  trunk  bulges  at  the  base,  above 
which  it  is  usually  about  one  foot  in  diameter,  and  of  the  same 
size  throughout,  or  rather  increasing  upward.  At  the  top  the 


236  BIRDS.  [CHAP.  XVII. 

leaves  spread  out  on  all  sides,  as  in  other  fan  palms.  Those 
which  have  fallen  off  do  not  leave  separate  scars  on  the  trunk, 
but  rings  are  formed  by  their  bases.  The  cabbage  of  the  young" 
palm  is  used  as  a  vegetable,  but  when  this  part  is  cut  off",  the 
plant  is  killed.  I  saw  sections  of  the  wood,  and  the  structure  of 
it  resembles  that  of  true  palms.  It  is  said  by  Elliott  to  be  inval 
uable  for  submarine  construction,  as  it  is  never  attacked  by  the 
ship-worm,  or  Teredo  tiavalis.  This  tree  flourishes  in  a  clay 
soil,  and  is  of  slow  growth.  It  requires  the  sea  air,  and  has  not 
suffered  from  the  late  severe  frost.  We  saw  some  plants  twelve 
years  old,  and  others  which  in  fifty  years  had  attained  a  height 
of  about  twenty  or  twenty-five  feet.  Such  as  have  reached  forty 
feet  are  supposed  to  be  at  least  a  century  old.  In  those  fields 
where  the  negroes  were  at  work,  and  where  the  cotton  plants 
were  still  standing  five  or  six  feet  high,  with  no  other  trees  ex 
cept  these  palms,  I  could  well  imagine  myself  in  the  tropics. 
We  put  up  many  birds,  the  names  of  which  were  all  familiar  to 
Dr.  Le  Conte  ;  among  others  the  Virginian  partridge  (Ortyx 
mrginiana),  the  rook  (Corvus  americanus),  nearly  resembling 
our  European  species,  not  only  in  plumage  but  in  its  note,  the 
marsh  hawk  (Circus  cyaneus),  the  snowy  heron  (Ardea  can- 
didissima),  the  bald-headed  eagle,  the  summer  duck,  and  meadow 
lark.  We  also  heard  the  mocking-bird  in  the  woods.  As  we 
were  entering  a  barn,  a  screech-owl  (Bubo  asio,  Lin.)  flew  out 
nearly  in  the  face  of  one  of  the  party.  When  we  came  to  a  tree 
partially  barked  by  lightning,  I  asked  Dr.  Le  Conte  whether  he 
adopted  the  theory  that  this  decortication  was  caused  by  steam  ; 
the  sap  or  juices  of  the  tree,  immediately  under  the  bark,  being 
suddenly  converted  by  the  heat  of  the  electric  fluid  into  vapor. 
He  said  that  lightning  was  so  common  here,  that  he  had  had 
opportunities  of  verifying  this  hypothesis  by  observing  that  the 
steam,  or  small  cloud  of  smoke,  as  it  is  commonly  called,  which 
is  produced  when  a  tree  is  struck,  disappears  immediately,  as  if 
by  condensation. 

There  are  decided  proofs  on  the  coast  of  Georgia  of  changes  in 
the  level  of  the  land,  in  times  geologically  modern,  and  I  shall 
afterward  mention  the  stumps  of  trees  below  the  sea-level,  at  the 


CHAP.  XVII.]  ALLIGATORS.  237 

mouth  of  the  Altamaha  river,  in  proof  of  a  former  subsidence  ; 
but  a  stranger  is  in  great  danger  of  being  deceived,  because  the 
common  pine,  called  the  loblolly  (Pinus  tceda),  has  tap-roots  as 
large  as  the  trunk,  which  run  down  vertically  for  seven  or  eight 
feet,  without  any  sensible  diminution  in  size.  At  the  depth  of 
about  ten  feet  below  the  surface  this  root  sends  off  numerous 
smaller  ones  horizontally,  and  when  the  sea  has  advanced  and 
swept  away  the  enveloping  sand  from  such  tap-roots,  they  remain 
erect,  and  become  covered  with  barnacles  and  oysters.  When  so 
circumstanced,  they  have  exactly  the  appearance  of  a  submarine 
forest,  caused  by  the  sinking  down  of  land.  A  geologist,  who  is 
on  his  guard  against  being  deceived  by  the  undermining  of  a  cliff, 
and  the  consequent  sliding  down  and  submergence  of  land  covered 
with  trees  which  remain  vertical,  may  yet  be  misled  by  finding 
these  large  tap-roots  standing  upright  under  water. 

As  the  alligators  are  very  abundant  in  the  swamps  near  the 
mouth  of  the  Savannah,  I  heard  much  of  their  habits,  and  was 
surprised  to  learn  that  pebbles  are  often  met  with  in  their  stom 
achs,  which  they  have  swallowed  to  aid  their  digestion,  as  birds 
eat  sand  and  gravel  to  assist  the  mechanical  action  of  the  gizzard. 
The  peculiar  conformation  of  the  alligator's  stomach  confirms 
this  view.  On  the  site  of  some  of  the  old  Indian  villages  whole 
baskets  full  of  flint  arrow-heads  have  been  picked  up,  and  some 
of  these,  much  worn  and  rubbed,  have  been  taken  out  of  the 
stomachs  of  these  reptiles. 

The  extraordinary  tenacity  of  life  manifested  by  the  alligator 
when  seriously  mutilated,  led  Dr.  Le  Conte  to  make  a  series  of 
experiments,  with  a  view  of  throwing  light  on  the  philosophy  of 
the  nervous  system  in  man  as  compared  to  the  lower  animals. 
A  young  alligator  was  decapitated  at  the  point  where  the  neck 
or  atlas  articulates  with  the  occiput.  Not  more  than  two  ounces 
of  blood  flowed  from  the  wound.  The  jaws  of  the  detached  head 
still  snapped  at  any  thing  which  touched  the  tongue  or  lining 
membrane  of  the  mouth.  After  the  convulsions  produced  by  de 
capitation  had  subsided,  the  trunk  of  the  animal  remained  in  a 
state  of  torpor  resembling  profound  sleep.  But  when  pricked  or 
pinched  on  the  sides,  the  creature  would  scratch  the  spot,  some- 


238  GROVE  OF  LIVE  OAKS.  [CHAP.  XVII. 

times  with  the  fore,  and  sometimes  with  the  hind  foot,  according 
to  the  situation  of  the  injury  inflicted.  These  movements  of  the 
limbs  were  promptly  and  determinately  performed,  and  were 
always  confined  to  the  members  on  the  side  of  the  irritating 
cause.  If  touched  below  the  posterior  extremity  on  the  thick 
portion  of  the  tail,  he  would  slowly  and  deliberately  draw  up 
the  hind  foot,  and  scratch  the  part,  and  would  use  considerable 
force  in  pushing  aside  the  offending  object.  These  experiments 
were  repeatedly  performed,  and  always  with  the  same  results, 
appearing  to  prove  that  the  creature  could  not  have  been  totally 
devoid  of  sensation  and  consciousness.  Dr.  Le  Conte  concludes, 
therefore,  that,  although  in  man  and  the  more  highly  organized 
vertebrata,  volition  is  seated  in  the  brain,  or  encephalus,  this 
function  in  reptiles  must  extend  over  the  whole  spinal  cord,  or 
cerebro-spinal  axis.  Some,  however,  may  contend  that  the  mo 
tions  observed  are  merely  spasmodic  and  involuntary,  like  sneez 
ing,  the  necessary  results  of  certain  physical  conditions  of  the 
nervous  system,  and  not  guided  in  any  way  by  the  mind.  If  so, 
it  can  not  be  denied  that  they  have  all  the  appearance  of  being 
produced  with  a  perfect  knowledge  of  the  end  in  view,  and  to  be 
directed  peculiarly  to  that  end  ;  so  that,  if  we  embrace  the  hy 
pothesis  that  they  supervene  simply  on  the  application  of  stimuli, 
without  any  sensations  being  carried  to  the  brain,  and  without 
any  co-operation  of  the  mind,  must  we  not  in  that  case  suspect 
that  a  large  proportion  of  the  actions  of  quadrupeds,  usually 
attributed  to  the  control  of  the  will,  may  in  like  manner  be  per 
formed  without  consciousness  or  volition  ?* 

When  we  got  back  to  Savannah,  I  found  my  wife  just  returned 
from  Bonaventure,  about  four  miles  distant,  where  she  had  ac 
companied  a  lady  on  a  drive  to  see  a  magnificent  grove  of  live 
oaks,  the  branches  of  which,  arching  over  head,  form  a  splendid 
aisle.  It  was  formerly  the  fashion  of  the  planters  of  the  Caro- 
lirias  and  Georgia,  to  make  summer  tours  in  the  northern 
states,  or  stay  in  watering-places  there  ;  but  they  are  now  in  the 
habit  of  visiting  the  upland  region  of  the  Alleghanies  in  their 

*  See  a  paper  by  J.  Le  Conte,  New  York  Journal  of  Medicine,  Nov. 
1845,  p.  335. 


CHAP.  XVII.]        SLAVES  TAKEN  TO  FREE  STATES.  239 

own  states,  and  speak  enthusiastically  of  the  beauty  and  grandeur 
of  the  scenery.  Their  intercourse  with  the  north  was  useful  in 
giving  them  new  ideas,  and  showing  them  what  rapid  progress 
civilization  is  making  there ;  but  they  have  been  deterred  from 
traveling  there  of  late,  owing,  as  they  tell  me,  to  the  conduct  of 
the  abolitionists  toward  the  negro  servants  whom  they  take  with 
them, 

Sometimes  a  writ  of  Habeas  Corpus  is  served,  and  the  colored 
servant  is  carried  before  a  magistrate,  on  the  plea  that  he  or  she 
are  detained  against  their  will.  Even  where  they  have  firmly 
declared  their  wish  to  return  to  their  owners,  they  have  been 
often  unsettled  in  their  ideas,  and  less  contented  afterward  with 
their  condition. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

Savannah  to  Darien. — Anti-Slavery  Meetings  discussed. — War  with  En 
gland. — Landing  at  Darien. — Crackers. — Scenery  on  Altamaha  River. 
— Negro  Boatmen  singing. — Marsh  Blackbird  in  Rice  Grounds. — Hospi 
tality  of  Southern  Planters.  —  New  Clearing  and  Natural  Rotation  of 
Trees.  —  Birds.  —  Shrike  and  Kingfisher.  —  Excursion  to  St.  Simon's 
Island. — Butler's  Island  and  Negroes. — Stumps  of  Trees  in  Salt  Marshes 
proving  Subsidence  of  Land. — Alligator  seen. — Their  Nests  and  Habits. 
Their  Fear  of  Porpoises. — Indian  Shell  Mound  on  St.  Simon's  Island. — 
Date-palm,  Orange,  Lemon,  and  Olive  Trees. — Hurricanes. — Visit  to 
outermost  Barrier  Island. — Sea  Shells  on  Beach. — Negro  Maid-Servants. 

Dec.  31,  1845. — ON  the  last  day  of  the  year  we  sailed  in  a 
steamer  from  Savannah  to  Darien,  in  Georgia,  about  125  miles 
farther  south,  skirting  a  low  coast,  and  having  the  Gulf-stream 
about  sixty  miles  to  the  eastward  of  us.  Our  fellow-passengers 
consisted  of  planters,  with  several  mercantile  men  from  northern 
states.  The  latter  usually  maintained  a  prudent  reserve  on 
politics  ;  yet  one  or  two  warm  discussions  arose,  in  which  not 
only  the  chances  of  war  with  England,  and  the  policy  of  the 
party  now  in  power,  but  the  more  exciting  topic  of  slavery,  and 
the  doings  at  a  recent  anti-slavery  meeting  in  Exeter  Hall, 
London,  were  spoken  of.  I  was  told  by  a  fellow-passenger,  that 
some  of  the  Georgian  planters  who  are  declaiming  most  vehe 
mently  against  Mr.  Polk  for  so  nearly  drawing  them  into  a  war 
with  Great  Britain,  were  his  warmest  supporters  in  the  late 
presidential  election.  "  They  are  justly  punished,"  he  said,  "  for 
voting  against  their  principles.  Although  not  belonging  to  the 
democratic  party,  they  went  for  Polk  in  order  that  Texas  might 
be  annexed  ;  and  now  that  they  have  carried  that  point,  their 
imaginations  are  haunted  with  the  image  of  the  cotton  trade 
paralyzed,  an  English  fleet  ravaging  the  coast  and  carrying  away 
their  negroes,  as  in  the  last  war,  and,  worst  of  all,  the  abolition 
ists  of  the  north  looking  on  with  the  utmost  complacency  at  their 
ruin."  One  of  the  most  moderate  of  the  planters,  with  whom  I 
conversed  apart,  told  me  that  the  official  avowal  of  the  English 


CHAP.  XVIII.]  ANTI-SLAVERY  MEETINGS.  241 

government,  that  one  of  the  reasons  for  acknowledging  the  inde 
pendence  of  Texas  was  its  tendency  to  promote  the  abolition  of 
slavery,  had  done  much  to  alienate  the  planters,  and  increase  the 
anti-English  feeling  in  the  south.  He  also  observed,  that  any 
thing  like  foreign  dictation  or  intermeddling  excited  a  spirit  of 
resistance,  and  asked  whether  I  thought  the  emancipation  of  the 
West  Indian  slaves  would  have  been  accelerated  by  meetings  in 
the  United  States  or  Germany  to  promote  that  measure.  He 
then  adverted  to  the  letters  lately  published  by  Mr.  Colman,  on 
English  agriculture,  in  which  the  poverty,  ignorance,  and  sta 
tionary  condition  of  the  British  peasantry  are  painted  in  most 
vivid  colors.  He  also  cited  Lord  Ashley's  speeches  on  the  mise 
ries  endured  underground  by  women  and  boys  in  coal-mines,  and 
said  that  the  parliamentary  reports  on  the  wretched  state  of  the 
factory  children  in  England  had  been  largely  extracted  from  in 
their  papers,  to  show  that  the  orators  of  Exeter  Hall  might  find 
abuses  enough  at  home  to  remedy,  without  declaiming  against 
the  wrongs  of  their  negroes,  whose  true  condition  and  prospects 
of  improvement  were  points  on  which  they  displayed  consummate 
ignorance.  Finding  me  not  disposed  to  controvert  him,  he 
added,  in  a  milder  tone,  that,  for  his  part,  he  thought  the  south 
ern  planters  owed  a  debt  of  gratitude  to  England  for  setting  the 
example  to  American  philanthropists  of  making  pecuniary  com 
pensation  to  those  whose  slaves  they  set  free. 

When  I  had  leisure  to  think  over  this  conversation,  and  the 
hint  conveyed  to  my  countrymen,  how  they  might  best  devote 
their  energies  toward  securing  the  progress  of  the  laboring  classes 
at  home,  it  occurred  to  me  that  some  of  Channing's  discourses 
against  slavery  might  be  useful  to  a  minister  who  should  have 
the  patriotism  to  revive  the  measure  for  educating  the  factory 
children,  proposed  in  1843  by  Sir  James  Graham,  and  lost  in 
consequence  of  the  disputes  between  the  Church  and  the  Dissent 
ers.  It  would  be  easy  to  substitute  employer  for  owner,  and 
laborer  for  slave,  and  the  greater  part  of  the  eloquent  appeal  of 
the  New  England  orator  would  become  appropriate  : — 

"  Mutato  nomine  de  te 
Fabula  narratur." 
VOL.  I. — L 


242  WAR  WITH  ENGLAND.  [CHAP.  XV111. 

"  Every  man,"  says  Charming,  in  his  argument  against  slavery, 
"  has  a  right  to  exercise  and  invigorate  his  intellect,  and  who 
ever  obstructs  or  quenches  the  intellectual  life  in  another,  inflicts 
a  grievous  and  irreparable  wrong."*  "  Let  not  the  sacredness 
of  individual  man  be  forgotten  in  the  feverish  pursuit  of  property. 
It  is  more  important  that  the  individual  should  respect  himself, 
and  be  respected  by  others,  than  that  national  wealth,  which  is 
not  the  end  of  society,  should  be  accumulated.''!  "  He  (the 
slave)  must  form  no  plans  for  bettering  his  condition,  whatever 
be  his  capacities  ;  however  equal  to  great  improvements  of  his 
lot,  he  is  chained  for  life  to  the  same  unwearied  toil.  That  he 
should  yield  himself  to  intemperance  we  must  expect,  unused  to 
any  pleasures  but  those  of  sense."  "  We  are  told,"  says  the 
same  author,  "that  they  are  taught  religion,  that  they  hear  the 
voice  of  Christ,  and  read  in  his  cross  the  unutterable  worth  of 
their  spiritual  nature  ;  but  the  greater  part  are  still  buried  in 
heathen  ignorance.":}: 

"They  may  be  free  from  care,  and  sure  of  future  support,  but 
their  future  is  not  brightened  by  images  of  joy  ;  it  stretches  be 
fore  them  sterile  and  monotonous,  sending  no  cheering  whisper  of 
a  better  lot."§ 

An  inhabitant  of  one  of  the  six  New  England  States,  or  of 
New  York,  where,  in  a  population  of  five  millions  of  souls,  one 
teacher  is  now  supplied  for  every  thirty  children,  may  be  en 
titled  to  address  this  language  to  the  southern  slave  owner ; 
but  does  the  state  of  the  working  classes,  whether  in  Great 
Britain  or  the  West  Indies,  authorize  us  to  assume  the  same 
tone  ? 

A  merchant  from  New  York  told  me,  that  in  «  The  Union,"  a 
semi-official  journal  published  at  Washington,  and  supposed  to 
represent  the  views  of  the  cabinet,  an  article  had  just  appeared, 
headed,  "  The  whole  of  Oregon  or  none,"  which  for  the  first  time 
gave  him  some  uneasiness.  "  A  war,"  he  said,  might  seem  too 
absurd  to  be  possible  ;  but  a  few  months  ago  he  had  thought  the 
election  of  Mr.  Polk  equally  impossible,  and  the  President  might 

*  Channing's  Works,  vol.  ii,  p.  35.  t  Vol.  ii.  p.  44. 

t  Vol.  ii,  p.  94,  §  Vol.  ii.  p.  89, 


CHAP.  XVIIL]  LANDING  AT  DARIEN.  243 

go  on  tampering  with  the  popular  passions,  till  he  could  not  con 
trol  them.  The  presidential  election  would  have  ended  differ 
ently,"  he  affirmed,  "  but  for  5000  fraudulent  votes  given  in  the 
city  of  New  York."  I  asked  if  he  thought  the  people  would 
enter  with  spirit  into  a  war  for  which  they  had  made  no  prep 
aration.  "  It  would  depend,"  he  said,  "  on  the  policy  of  En 
gland.  If  she  made  predatory  and  bucaniering  descents  upon 
the  coast,  as  in  the  last  war,  or  attacked  some  of  the  great  east 
ern  sea-ports,  she  might  stir  up  the  whole  population  to  a  state 
of  frenzied  energy,  and  cause  them  to  make  great  sacrifices  ;  but 
if  she  put  forth  the  whole  strength  of  her  fleets  against  the  com 
merce  of  the  Union,  and  stood  on  the  defensive  in  Canada,  so  as 
to  protract  the  campaign,  and  cripple  their  revenues  derived  from 
customs,  the  people,  remembering  that  when  the  war  commenced, 
the  cabinet  of  St.  James's  and  the  English  press  were  pacific 
and  willing  to  come  to  a  compromise  about  Oregon,  would  be 
come  impatient  of  direct  taxation,  and  turn  against  the  party 
which  had  plunged  them  into  hostilities." 

Dec,  31. — At  the  end  of  a  long  day's  sail,  our  steamer  land 
ed  us  safely  at  the  village  of  Darien,  on  the  sandy  banks  of 
the  river  Altamaha  (which  is  pronounced  Altamaha,  the  a's 
broad).  The  sky  was  clear,  and  the  air  mild,  but  refreshing, 
and  we  were  told  that  we  must  walk  to  the  inn,  not  far  off. 
Five  negroes  were  very  officious  in  offering  their  services,  and 
four  of  them  at  length  adjusted  all  our  packages  on  their  backs. 
The  other,  having  nothing  else  to  do,  assumed  the  command  of 
the  party,  having  first  said  to  me,  "If  you  not  ready,  we  will 
hesitate  for  half  an  hour."  We  passed  under  some  of  the  noblest 
evergreen  oaks  I  had  yet  seen,  their  large  picturesque  roots  spread 
ing  on  all  sides,  half  out  of  the  loose,  sandy  soil,  and  their  boughs 
hung  with  unusually  long  weepers  of  Spanish  moss.  When  I  had 
paid  our  four  porters,  the  one  who  had  gone  first,  assuming  an 
air  of  great  importance,  "  hoped  I  would  remember  the  pilot." 
As  the  inn  was  almost  in  sight  from  the  landing,  and  our  course 
a  direct  one  in  a  bright  moonlight  night,  and  all  the  men  quite 
familiar  with  every  step  of  the  way,  we  were  not  a  little  diverted 
at  the  notion  of  paying  for  a  guide,  bxit  the  good-humored  coun- 


244  SCENERY  ON  ALTAMAHA.  [CHAP.  XVIII. 

tenance  of  the  pilot  made  his  appeal  irresistible.  The  bed  at  our 
humble  inn  was  clean,  but  next  morning  we  were  annoyed  by 
having  to  sit  down  to  breakfast  with  a  poor  white  family,  to 
whom  the  same  compliment  could  not  be  paid — a  man  and  his 
wife  and  four  children,  belonging  to  the  class  called  "  crackers" 
in  Georgia.  The  etymology  of  this  word  is  rather  uncertain, 
some  deriving  it  from  the  long  whips  used  by  the  wagoners. 
They  are  a  class  of  small  proprietors,  who  seem  to  acquire  slov 
enly  habits  from  dependence  on  slaves,  of  whom  they  can  main 
tain  but  few. 

The  next  morning,  while  we  were  standing  on  the  river's 
bank,  we  were  joined  by  Mr.  Hamilton  Couper,  with  whom  I 
had  corresponded  on  geological  matters,  and  whom  I  have  already 
mentioned  as  the  donor  of  a  splendid  collection  of  fossil  remains 
to  the  museum  at  Washington,  and,  I  may  add,  of  other  like 
treasures  to  that  of  Philadelphia.  He  came  down  the  river  to 
meet  us  in  a  long  canoe,  hollowed  out  of  the  trunk  of  a  single 
cypress,  and  rowed  by  six  negroes,  who  were  singing  loudly,  and 
keeping  time  to  the  stroke  of  their  oars.  He  brought  us  a  packet 
of  letters  from  England,  which  had  been  sent  to  his  house,  a 
welcome  New  Year's  gift ;  and  when  we  had  glanced  over  their 
contents,  we  entered  the  boat  and  began  to  ascend  the  Alta- 
maha. 

The  river  was  fringed  on  both  sides  with  tall  canes  and  with 
the  cypress  (Cupressus  disticha),  and  many  other  trees,  still 
leafless,  which,  being  hung  with  gray  moss,  gave  a  somber  tone 
to  the  scenery  at  this  season,  in  spite  of  the  green  leaves  of  sev 
eral  species  of  laurel,  myrtle,  and  magnolia.  But  wherever  there 
was  a  break  in  the  fringe  of  trees,  which  flourished  luxuriantly 
in  the  swamps  bordering  the  river,  a  forest  of  evergreen  pines 
was  seen  in  the  back  ground.  For  many  a  mile  we  saw  no 
habitations,  and  the  solitude  was  profound  ;  but  our  black  oars 
men  made  the  woods  echo  to  their  song.  One  of  them  taking 
the  lead,  first  improvised  a  verse,  paying  compliments  to  his  mas 
ter's  family,  and  to  a  celebrated  black  beauty  of  the  neighbor 
hood,  who  was  compared  to  the  '•  red  bird."  The  other  five 
then  joined  in  chorus,  always  repeating  the  same  words  Occa- 


CHAP.  XVIIL]  SOUTHERN  PLANTERS.  245 

sionally  they  struck  up  a  hymn,  taught  them  by  the  Methodists, 
in  which  the  most  sacred  subjects  were  handled  with  strange 
familiarity,  and  which,  though  nothing  irreverent  was  meant, 
sounded  oddly  to  our  ears,  and,  when  following  a  love  ditty,  al 
most  profane. 

Darien  is  on  the  left  or  northern  bank  of  the  Altamaha. 
About  fifteen  miles  above  it,  on  the  opposite  bank,  we  came  to 
Hopetori,  the  residence  of  Mr.  II.  Couper,  having  first  passed 
from  the  river  into  a  canal,  which  traversed  the  low  rice  fields. 
Here  we  put  up  prodigious  flights  of  the  marsh  blackbird  (Aje- 
laius  phceniceus),  sometimes  called  the  red-winged  starling,  be 
cause  the  male  has  some  scarlet  feathers  in  the  upper  part  of  his 
wing.  When  several  thousands  of  them  are  in  rapid  motion  at 
once,  they  darken  the  air  like  a  cloud,  and  then,  when  the  whole 
of  them  suddenly  turn  their  wings  edgeways,  the  cloud  vanishes, 
to  reappear  as  instantaneously  the  next  moment.  Mr.  Couper 
encourages  these  birds,  as  they  eat  up  all  the  loose  grains  of  rice 
scattered  over  the  field  after  the  harvest  has  been  gathered  in. 
If  these  seeds  are  left,  they  spring  up  the  year  following,  pro 
ducing  what  is  called  volunteer  rice,  always  of  inferior  quality  to 
that  which  is  regularly  sown.  From  the  rice  grounds  we  walked 
up  a  bank  to  a  level  table  land,  composed  of  sand,  a  few  yards 
above  the  river,  and  covered  with  pines  and  a  mixture  of  scrub 
oa,k.  Here,  in  this  genial  climate,  there  are  some  wild  flowers 
in  bloom  every  day  of  the  year.  On  this  higher  level,  near  the 
slope  which  faces  the  rice  fields  and  the  river,  stands  the  house 
of  Hopeton,  where  we  spent  our  time  very  agreeably  for  a  fort 
night.  Much  has  been  said  in  praise  of  the  hospitality  of  the 
southern  planter,  but  they  alone  who  have  traveled  in  the  south 
ern  states,  can  appreciate  the  perfect  ease  and  politeness  with 
which  a  stranger  is  made  to  feel  himself  at  home.  Horses,  car 
riages,  boats,  servants,  are  all  at  his  disposal.  Even  his  little 
comforts  are  thought  of,  and  every  thing  is  done  as  heartily  and 
naturally  as  if  no  obligation  were  conferred.  When  northerners 
who  are  not  very  rich  receive  guests  in  the  country,  where  do 
mestic  servants  are  few  and  expensive,  they  are  often  compelled, 
if  they  would  insure  the  comfort  of  their  visitors,  to  perform  me- 


246  ROTATION  OF  TREES.  [CHAP.  XVIII. 

nial  offices  themselves.  The  sacrifices,  therefore,  made  by  the 
planter,  are  comparatively  small,  since  he  has  a  well-trained  es 
tablishment  of  servants,  and  his  habitual  style  of  living  is  so  free 
and  liberal,  that  the  expense  of  a  few  additional  inmates  in  the 
family  is  scarcely  felt.  Still  there  is  a  warm  and  generous  open 
ness  of  character  in  the  southerners,  which  mere  wealth  and  a 
retinue  of  servants  cannot  give ;  and  they  have  often  a  dignity  of 
manner,  without  stiffness,  which  is  most  agreeable. 

The  landed  proprietors  here  visit  each  other  in  the  style  of 
English  country  gentlemen,  sometimes  dining  out  with  their 
families  and  returning  at  night,  or,  if  the  distance  be  great,  re 
maining  to  sleep  and  coming  home  the  next  morning.  A  con 
siderable  part  of  their  food  is  derived  from  the  produce  of  the 
land  ;  but,  as  their  houses  are  usually  distant  from  large  towns, 
they  keep  large  stores  of  groceries  and  of  clothing,  as  is  the 
custom  in  country  houses  in  some  parts  of  Scotland. 

Near  the  house  of  Hopeton  there  was  a  clearing  in  the  forest, 
exhibiting  a  fine  illustration  of  that  natural  rotation  of  crops, 
which  excites,  not  without  reason,  the  surprise  of  every  one  who 
sees  it  for  the  first  time,  and  the  true  cause  of  which  is  still  im 
perfectly  understood.  The  trees  which  had  been  cut  down  were 
full-grown  pines  (Pinus  australis),  of  which  the  surrounding 
wood  consists,  and  which  might  have  gone  on  for  centuries,  one 
generation  after  another,  if  their  growth  had  not  been  interfered 
with.  But  now  they  are  succeeded  by  a  crop  of  young  oaks, 
and  we  naturally  ask,  whence  came  the  acorns,  and  how  were 
they  sown  here  in  such  numbers  ?  It  seems  that  the  jay  (G-ar- 
rulus  cristatus)  has  a  propensity  to  bury  acorns  and  various 
grains  in  the  ground,  forgetting  to  return  and  devour  them.  The 
rook,  also  (Corvus  americanus),  does  the  same,  and  so  do  some 
squirrels  and  other  Rodentia  ;  and  they  plant  them  so  deep,  that 
they  will  not  shoot  unless  the  air  and  the  sun's  rays  can  pene 
trate  freely  into  the  soil,  as  when  the  shade  of  the  pine  trees  has 
been  entirely  removed.  It  must  occasionally  happen,  that  birds 
or  quadrupeds,  which  might  otherwise  have  returned  to  feed  on 
the  hidden  treasure,  are  killed  by  some  one  of  their  numerous 
enemies.  But  as  the  seeds  of  pines  must  be  infinitely  more 


CHAP.  XVIII.]  SHRIKE  AND  KINGFISHER.  247 

abundant  than  the  acorns,  we  have  still  to  explain  what  prin 
ciple  in  vegetable  life  favors  the  rotation.  Liebig  adopts  De 
Candolle's  theory,  as  most  probable.  He  supposes  that  the  roots 
of  plants  imbibe  soluble  matter  of  every  kind  from  the  soil,  and 
absorb  many  substances  not  adapted  for  their  nutrition,  which 
are  subsequently  expelled  by  the  roots,  and  returned  to  the  soil 
as  excrements.  •  Now,  as  excrements  cannot  be  assimilated  by 
the  plant  which  ejected  them,  the  more  of  these  matters  the  soil 
contains,  the  less  fertile  must  it  become  for  plants  of  the  same 
species.  These  exudations,  however,  may  be  capable  of  assimi 
lation  by  another  perfectly  different  kind  or  family  of  plants, 
which  would  flourish  while  taking  them  up  from  the  soil,  and 
render  the  soil,  in  time,  again  fertile  for  the  first  plants.  "  Dur 
ing  a  fallow,"  says  Liebig,  "  the  action  of  the  sun  and  atmos 
phere,  especially  if  not  intercepted  by  the  growth  of  weeds, 
causes  the  decomposition  of  the  excrementitious  matters,  and 
converts  the  soil  into  humus  or  vegetable  mold,  restoring  fer 
tility."* 

In  one  part  of  the  pine  forest  I  saw  the  Liquidambar  tree 
growing  vigorously  fifty  feet  high,  with  a  bark  resembling  cork. 
The  bird  of  brightest  plumage  was  the  one  called  the  red  bird, 
or  red  cardinal  (Loxia  cardinalis),  which  has  a  full,  clear,  and 
mellow  note,  though  no  variety  of  song.  It  frequents  bushes,  in 
the  neighborhood  of  houses,  where  it  comes  to  be  fed,  but  will 
not  thrive  in  captivity.  One  day,  a  son  of  Mr.  Couper's  brought 
us  a  hen  cardinal  bird  and  a  wild  partridge,  both  taken  unin 
jured  in  a  snare.  It  was  amusing  to  contrast  the  extreme  fierce 
ness  of  the  cardinal  with  the  mildness  and  gentleness  of  the 
partridge.  That  insects,  birds,  and  quadrupeds,  of  the  same 
genera,  but  of  distinct  species,  discharge  similar  functions  in 
America  arid  Europe,  is  well  known.  My  attention  was  called 
here  to  some  thorny  bushes,  on  which  the  shrike  or  loggerhead 
(Lanius  ludovicianus)  had  impaled  small  lizards,  frogs,  and 
beetles,  just  as  I  have  seen  mice  and  insects  fixed  on  thorns  by 
our  English  shrikes.  Here,  also,  the  marshes  near  the  river  are 
frequented  by  the  belted  kingfisher  (Alcedo  alcyori),  resembling 
*  Liebig's  Organic  Chemistry,  pt.  i.  ch.  8. 


248  VISIT  TO  ST.  SIMON'S.  [CHAP.  XVIII. 

in  plumage,  though  not  so  brilliant  as  the  English  kingfisher, 
which  yet  lingers,  in  spite  of  persecution,  in  the  reedy  islands  of 
the  Thames  above  London.  Mr.  Couper  tells  rne,  that  the 
American  bird  dives  after  its  prey,  like  that  of  Europe,  and  will 
often  carry  a  fish,  not  much  smaller  than  itself,  and  beat  it 
against  the  stump  of  a  tree,  first  on  one  side,  then  on  the  other, 
till  every  bone  in  its  body  is  broken  ;  it  can  then  swallow  it.  in 
spite  of  its  size. 

A  few  days  after  our  arrival  (January  4,  1846),  Mr.  Couper 
took  us  in  a  canoe  down  the  river  from  Hopeton  to  one  of  the 
sea-islands,  called  St.  Simon's,  fifteen  miles  distant,  to  visit  his 
summer  residence,  and  to  give  me  an  opportunity  of  exploring 
the  geology  of  the  coast  and  adjoining  low  country.  We  saw, 
on  the  banks  of  the  river,  the  Magnolia  glauca,  attaining  a 
height  of  thirty  feet,  instead-  of  being  only  ten  feet  high,  as  in 
the  swamps  of  New  England.  The  gum  tree  (Nyssa  aquatica), 
out  of  leaf  at  this  season,  was  conspicuous,  from  the  manner  in 
which  the  smooth  trunk  swells  out  at  the  base,  being  partially 
hollow  in  the  interior,  so  that  it  is  often  used  by  the  negroes 
for  bee-hives.  Jays  and  blue-birds  were  very  abundant,  and 
there  were  several  large  hawks'  nests  on  the  tops  of  tall  dead 
trees. 

Among  the  zoological  characteristics  of  the  North  American 
rivers,  none  is  more  remarkable  than  the  variety  of  species  of 
shells  of  the  genus  Unio,  or  fresh- water  mussel,  which  inhabit 
them.  Every  great  stream  yields  some  new  forms,  and  Mr. 
Couper  has  already  discovered  in  the  Altamaha  no  less  than 
sixteen  species  before  unknown  ;  one  of  these,  Unio  spinoszis, 
has  a  singular  appearance,  being  armed  with  spines,  standing 
out  horizontally  from  the  shell,  and  probably  acting  as  a  defense 
against  some  enemy. 

On  our  way  we  landed  on  Butler's  Island,  where  the  banks 
of  the  river,  as  is  usual  in  deltas,  are  higher  than  the  ground 
immediately  behind  them.  They  are  here  adorned  with  orange 
trees,  loaded  with  golden  fruit,  and  very  ornamental.  We  saw 
ricks  of  rice  raised  on  props  five  feet  high,  to  protect  them  from 
the  sea,  which,  during  hurricanes,  has  been  known  to  rise  five  or 


CHAP.  XVIII. ]  BUTLER'S  ISLAND.  249 

six  feet.  The  negro  houses  were  neat,  and  whitewashed,  all 
floored  with  wood,  each  with  an  apartment  called  the  hall,  two 
sleeping-rooms,  and  a  loft  for  the  children  ;  but  it  is  evident  that 
on  these  rice  farms,  where  the  negroes  associate  with  scarcely 
any  whites,  except  the  overseer  and  his  family,  and  have  but 
little  intercourse  with  the  slaves  of  other  estates,  they  must  re 
main  far  more  stationary  than  where,  as  in  a  large  part  ot 
Georgia,  they  are  about  equal  in  number  to  the  whites,  or  even 
form  a  minority.  The  negroes,  moreover,  in  the  interior,  are 
healthier  than  those  in  rice  plantations,  and  multiply  faster,  al 
though  the  rice  grounds  are  salubrious  to  the  negroes  as  com 
pared  to  the  whites.  In  this  lower  region  the  increase  of  the 
slaves  is  rapid,  for  they  are  wrell  fed,  fitted  for  a  southern  cli 
mate,  and  free  from  care,  partly,  no  doubt,  because  of  their  low 
mental  development,  and  partly  because  they  and  their  children 
are  secured  from  want.  Such  advantages,  however,  would  be 
of  no  avail,  in  rendering  them  prolific,  if  they  were  overworked 
and  harshly  treated. 

As  we  approached  the  sea  and  the  brackish  water,  the  wood 
bordering  the  river  began  first  to  grow  dwarfish,  and  then, 
lowering  suddenly,  to  give  place  entirely  to  reeds  ;  but  still  we 
saw  the  buried  stumps  and  stools  of  the  cypress  and  pine  con 
tinuing  to  show  themselves  in  every  section  of  the  bank,  main 
taining  the  upright  position  in  which  they  originally  grew.  The 
occurrence  of  these  in  the  salt  marshes  clearly  demonstrates  that 
trees  once  flourished  where  they  would  now  be  immediately  killed 
by  the  salt  water.  There  must  have  been  a  change  in  the  rel 
ative  level  of  land  and  sea,  to  account  for  their  growth,  since, 
even  above  the  commencement  of  the  brackish  water,  similar 
stumps  are  visible  at  a  lower  level  than  the  present  high  tide, 
and  covered  by  layers  of  sedimentary  matter,  on  which  tall  cy- 
prosses  and  other  trees  are  now  standing.  From  such  phenomena 
we  may  infer  the  following  sequence  of  events  : — first,  an  ancient 
forest  was  submerged  several  feet,  and  the  sunk  trees  were  killed 
by  the  salt  water  ;  they  then  rotted  away  down  to  the  water 
level  (a  long  operation),  after  which  layers  of  sand  were  thrown 
down  upon  the  stumps  ;  and  finally,  when  the  surface  had  been 

L* 


950  TREES  IN  SALT  MARSHES.  [CHAP.  XVIII. 


raised  "by  fluviatile  sediment,  as  in  a  delta,  a  new  forest  grew  up 
over  the  ruins  of  the  old  one. 

I  have  said  that  the  decay  of  such  timber  is  slow,  for  I  saw 
cypresses  at  Hopeton,  which  had  been  purposely  killed  by  girdling 
or  cutting  away  a  ring  of  bark,  which  stood  erect  on  the  borders 
of  the  rice  grounds  after  thirty  years,  and  bid  fair  to  last  for 
many  a  year  to  come.  It  does  no  small  credit  to  the  sagacity 
of  Bartram,  the  botanist,  that  he  should  have  remarked,  when 
writing  in  1792,  that  the  low,  flat  islands  on  the  coast,  as  well 
as  the  salt  marshes  arid  adjoining  sandy  region,  through  which 
so  many  rivers  wind,  and  which  afford  so  secure  a  navigation  for 
schooners,  boats,  and  canoes,  may  be  a  step  in  advance  gained 
by  the  continent  on  the  Atlantic  in  modern  times.  "  But  if  so," 
he  adds,  "it  is  still  clear  that,  at  a  period  immediately  preceding, 
the  same  region  of  low  land  stretched  still  farther  out  to  sea." 
On  the  latter  subject  his  words  are  so  much  to  the  point,  as  to 
deserve  being  quoted  : — 

"  It  seerns  evident,  even  to  demonstration,  that  those  salt 
marshes  adjoining  the  coast  of  the  main,  and  the  reedy  and 
grassy  islands  and  marshes  in  the  rivers,  which  are  now  over 
flowed  at  every  tide,  were  formerly  high  swamps  of  firm  land, 
affording  forests  of  cypress,  tupelo,  magnolia  grandiflora,  oak, 
ash,  sweet  bay,  and  other  timber  trees,  the  same  as  are  now 
growing  on  the  river  swamps,  whose  surface  is  two  feet  or  more 
above  the  spring  tides  that  flow  at  this  day.  And  it  is  plainly 
to  be  seen  by  every  planter  along  the  coast  of  Carolina,  Georgia, 
and  Florida,  to  the  Mississippi,  when  they  bank  in  these  grassy 
tide  marshes  for  cultivation,  that  they  can  not  sink  their  drains 
above  three  or  four  feet  below  the  surface,  before  they  come  to 
strata  of  cypress  stumps  and  other  trees,  as  close  together  as  they 
now  grow  in  the  swamps."* 

When  our  canoe  had  proceeded  into  the  brackish  water,  where 
the  river  banks  consisted  of  marsh  land  covered  with  a  tall  reed- 
like  grass,  we  came  close  up  to  an  alligator,  about  nine  feet  long, 
basking  in  the  sun.  Had  the  day  been  warmer,  he  would  not 

*  W.  Bartram's  Travels  through  North  and  South  Carolina,  Georgia, 
&c.  London,  1792. 


CHAP.  XVIII.]         ALLIGATOR'S  NEST  AND  HABITS.  251 

have  allowed  us  to  approach  so  near  to  him  ;  for  these  reptiles 
are  much  shyer  than  formerly,  since  they  have  learnt  to  dread 
the  avenging  rifle  of  the  planter,  whose  stray  hogs  and  sporting 
dogs  they  often  devour.  About  ten  years  ago,  Mr.  Couper  tells 
us,  that  he  saw  200  of  them  together  in  St.  Mary's  River,  in 
Florida,  extremely  fearless.  The  oldest  and  largest  individuals 
on  the  Altamaha  have  been  killed,  and  they  are  now  rarely 
twelve  feet  long,  and  never  exceed  sixteen  and  a  half  feet.  As 
almost  all  of  them  have  been  in  their  winter  retreats  ever  since 
the  frost  of  last  month,  I  was  glad  that  we  had  surprised  one  in 
his  native  haunts,  and  seen  him  plunge  into  the  water  by  the 
side  of  our  boat.  When  I  first  read  Bartram's  account  of  alli 
gators  more  than  twenty  feet  long,  and  how  they  attacked  his 
boat  and  bellowed  like  bulls,  and  made  a  sound  like  distant 
thunder,  I  suspected  him  of  exaggeration  ;  but  all  my  inquiries 
here  and  in  Louisiana  convinced  me  that  he  may  be  depended 
upon.  His  account  of  the  nests  which  they  build  in  the  marshes 
is  perfectly  correct.  They  resemble  haycocks,  about  four  feet 
high,  and  five  feet  in  diameter  at  their  bases,  being  constructed 
with  mud,  grass,  arid  herbage.  First  they  deposit  one  layer  of 
eggs  on  a  floor  of  mortar,  and  having  covered  this  with  a  second 
stratum  of  mud  and  herbage  eight  inches  thick,  lay  another  set 
of  eggs  upon  that,  and  so  on  to  the  top,  there  being  commonly 
from  one  hundred  to  two  hundred  eggs  in  a  nest.  With  their 
tails  they  then  beat  down  round  the  nest  the  dense  grass  and 
reeds,  five  feet  high,  to  prevent  the  approach  of  unseen  enemies. 
The  female  watches  her  eggs  until  they  are  all  hatched  by  the 
heat  of  the  sun,  and  then  takes  her  brood  under  her  care,  de 
fending  them,  and  providing  for  their  subsistence.*  Dr.  Luzen- 
berger,  of  New  Orleans,  told  me  that  he  once  packed  up  one  of 
these  nests,  with  the  eggs,  in  a  box  for  the  Museum  of  St.  Peters- 
burgh,  but  was  recommended,  before  he  closed  it,  to  see  that  there 
was  no  danger  of  any  of  the  eggs  being  hatched  on  the  voyage. 
On  opening  one,  a  young  alligator  walked  out,  arid  was  soon  after 
followed  by  all  the  rest,  about  a  hundred,  which  he  fed  in  his  house, 
where  they  went  up  and  down  the  stairs,  whining  and  barking 
*  Bartram,  p.  126, 


INDIAN  SHELL  MOUND.  [CHAP.  XVIII 


like  young  puppies.  They  ate  voraciously,  yet  their  growth  was 
so  slow,  as  to  confirm  him  in  the  common  opinion,  that  individ 
uals  which  have  attained  the  largest  size  are  of  very  great  age  ; 
though  whether  they  live  for  three  centuries,  as  some  pretend, 
must  be  decided  by  future  observations. 

Mr.  Couper  told  me  that,  in  the  summer  of  1845,  he  saw  a 
shoal  of  porpoises  coming  up  to  that  part  of  the  Altamaha  where 
the  fresh  and  salt  water  meet,  a  space  about  a  mile  in  length, 
the  favorite  fishing  ground  of  the  alligators,  where  there  is  brack 
ish  water,  which  shifts  its  place  according  to  the  varying  strength 
of  the  river  and  the  tide.  Here  were  seen  about  fifty  alligators, 
each  with  head  and  neck  raised  above  water,  looking  down  the 
stream  at  their  enemies,  before  whom  they  had  fled,  terror- 
stricken,  and  expecting  an  attack.  The  porpoises,  no  more  than 
a  dozen  in  number,  moved  on  in  two  ranks,  and  were  evidently 
complete  masters  of  the  field.  So  powerful,  indeed,  are  they, 
that  they  have  been  known  to  chase  a  large  alligator  to  the  bank, 
and,  putting  their  snouts  under  his  belly,  toss  him  ashore. 

We  landed  on  the  northeast  end  of  St.  Simon's  Island,  at  Can 
non's  Point,  where  we  were  gratified  by  the  sight  of  a  curious 
monument  of  the  Indians,  the  largest  mound  of  shells  left  by  the 
aborigines  in  any  one  of  the  sea  islands.  Here  are  no  less  than 
ten  acres  of  ground  elevated  in  some  places  ten  feet,  and  on  an 
average  over  the  whole  area,  five  feet  above  the  general  level, 
composed  throughout  that  depth  of  myriads  of  cast-away  oyster- 
shells,  with  some  mussels,  and  here  and  there  a  modiola  and 
helix.  They  who  have  seen  the  Monte  Testaceo  near  Rome, 
know  what  great  results  may  proceed  from  insignificant  causes, 
where  the  cumulative  power  of  time  has  been  at  work,  so  that  a 
hill  may  be  formed  out  of  the  broken  pottery  rejected  by  the  pop 
ulation  of  a  large  city.  To  them  it  will  appear  unnecessary  to 
infer,  as  some  antiquaries  have  done,  from  the  magnitude  of  these 
Indian  mounds,  that  they  must  have  been  thrown  up  by  the  sea. 
In  refutation  of  such  an  hypothesis,  we  have  the  fact,  that  flint 
arrow-heads,  stone  axes,  and  fragments  of  Indian  pottery  have 
been  detected  throughout  the  mass.  The  shell-fish  heaped  up  at 
Cannon's  Point,  must,  from  their  nature,  have  been  caught  at  a 


CHAP.  XVIII.]  MR.  COUPER'S  VILLA.  253 

distance,  on  one  of  the  outer  islands  ;  and  it  is  well  known  that 
the  Indians  were  in  the  habit  of  returning  with  what  they  had 
taken,  from  their  fishing  excursions  on  the  coast,  to  some  good 
hunting  ground,  such  as  St.  Simon's  afforded. 

We  found  Mr.  Couper's  villa,  near  the  water's  edge,  shaded 
by  a  verandah  and  by  a  sago  tree.  There  were  also  many  lemon 
trees,  somewhat  injured  by  the  late  frost ;  but  the  olives,  of 
which  there  is  a  fine  grove  here,  are  unharmed,  and  it  is  thought 
they  may  one  day  be  cultivated  with  profit  in  the  sea  islands. 
We  also  admired  five  date  palms,  which  bear  fruit.  They  were 
brought  from  Bussora  in  Persia,  and  have  not  suffered  by  the 
cold.  The  oranges  have  been  much  hurt.  Some  of  the  trees 
planted  by  Oglethorpe's  troops  in  1742,  after  flourishing  for  ninety- 
three  years,  were  cut  off  in  February,  1835,  and  others,  about  a 
century  and  a  half  old,  shared  the  same  fate  at  St.  Augustine  in 
Florida.  So  long  a  period  does  it  require  to  ascertain  whether  the 
climate  of  a  new  country  is  suitable  to  a  particular  species  of  plant. 

The  evergreen  or  live  oaks  are  truly  magnificent  in  this  island  ; 
some  of  them,  73  feet  in  height,  have  been  found  to  stretch  with 
their  boughs  over  an  area  63  feet  in  diameter.  I  measured  one 
which  was  thirty-five  years  old,  and  found  the  trunk  to  be  just 
35  inches  in  diameter  near  the  base,  showing  an  annual  gain  of 
three  inches  in  circumference.  Another,  growing  in  a  favorable 
situation,  forty-two  years  old,  was  nine  feet  six  inches  in  girth  at 
the  height  of  one  and  a  half  foot  above  the  ground. 

The  island  of  St.  Simon's  is  so  low,  that  the  lower  part  of  it 
was  under  water  in  1804  and  1824,  when  hurricanes  set  in 
with  the  wind  from  the  northeast.  Nearly  the  entire  surface 
was  submerged  in  1756.  In  that  year  the  sea  rose,  even  as  far 
north  as  Charleston,  to  the  height  of  six  feet  above  its  ordinary 
level,  and  that  city  might  have  been  destroyed,  had  the  gale  last 
ed  in  the  same  direction  a  few  hours  longer. 

I  went  with  Mr.  Couper  to  Long  Island,  the  outermost  bar 
rier  of  land  between  St.  Simon's  and  the  ocean,  four  miles  long, 
and  about  half  a  mile  wide,  of  recent  formation,  and  consisting  of 
parallel  ranges  of  sand  dunes,  marking  its  growth  by  successive 
additions.  Some  of  the  dunes  on  this  coast  have  been  raised  by 


254  LONG  ISLAND.  [CHAP.  XVIII, 

the  wind  to  the  height  of  40  or  50  feet,  and  inclose  evergreen 
oaks  ( Quercus  virens),  the  upper  branches  of  which  alone  pro 
trude  above  the  surface.  Between  the  parallel  sand  dunes  were 
salt  marshes,  where  we  collected  the  plant-eating  shell  called 
Auricula  bidentata,  of  a  genus  peculiar  to  such  littoral  situa 
tions.  On  the  sea-beach,  we  gathered  no  less  than  twenty -nine 
species  of  marine  shells,  and  they  were  of  peculiar  interest  to  me, 
because  they  agreed  specifically  with  those  which  I  had  obtained 
from  the  strata  lying  immediately  below  the  megatherium  and 
other  fossils  in  Skiddaway  Island,  and  which  occur  below  similar 
remains  presently  to  be  mentioned  near  Hopeton.  In  some  places 
we  found  bivalves  only  of  the  genera  Pholas,  Lutraria,  Sole- 
curtus,  Petricola,  Tellina,  Donax,  Venus,  Cardium,  Area, 
Pinna,  and  Mytilus,  just  as  in  the  fossil  group.  On  other  parts 
of  the  beach  there  was  a  mixture  of  univalves,  Oliva,  Pyrula 
(Fulgur),  JBuccinum,  &c.  Besides  these  shells  we  found,  scat 
tered  over  the  sands,  a  scutella  and  cases  of  the  king  crab  (Li- 
mulus"),  and  fragments  of  turtles,  with  bones  of  porpoises. 

Every  geologist  who  has  examined  strata  consisting  of  alter 
nations  of  sandstone  and  shale,  must  occasionally  have  observed 
angular  or  rounded  pieces  of  the  shale  imbedded  in  the  sand 
stones,  a  phenomenon  which  seems  at  first  sight  very  singular, 
because  we  might  almost  say  that  the  formation  is  in  part  made 
up  of  its  own  ruins,  and  not  derived  wholly  from  pre-existing 
rocks.  On  the  exposed  coast  of  this  "  frontier  island,"  I  saw  a 
complete  explanation  of  the  manner  in  which  this  structure  orig 
inates.  Deposits  of  sand  and  beds  of  clay  are  formed  alternately 
at  different  seasons,  arid  at  the  time  of  our  visit  the  sea  was 
making  great  inroads  on  an  argillaceous  mass,  washing  out 
pieces  of  the  half-consolidated  clay,  and  strewing  them  over  the 
sands,  some  flat,  others  angular,  or  rolled  into  various  sized  peb 
bles.  These,  when  carried  out  into  the  adjoining  parts  of  the 
sea,  must  be  often  included  in  the  sand,  which  may  be  eventually 
converted  into  sandstone. 

Among  the  numerous  sea  birds,  I  particularly  admired  one  called 
the  sheer-water,  with  its  shrill  clear  note,  and  most  rapid  flight. 

On  my  return  to  Cannon's  Point,  I  found,  in  the  well-stored 


CHAP.  XVIII.]  MENDICITY.  255 

library  of  Mr.  Couper,  Audubon's  Birds,  Michaud's  Forest  Trees, 
and  other  costly  works  on  natural  history  ;  also  Catherwood's 
Antiquities  of  Central  America,  folio  edition,  in  which  the  supe 
rior  effect  of  the  larger  drawings  of  the  monuments  of  Indian 
architecture  struck  me  much,  as  compared  to  the  reduced  ones, 
given  in  Stephens's  Central  America,  by  the  same  artist,  although 
these  also  are  very  descriptive. 

During  our  excursion  to  the  sea-beach,  my  wife  had  been  vis 
ited  by  some  ladies  well  acquainted  with  relations  of  her  own, 
who  formerly  resided  in  this  part  of  Georgia,  and  who,  when 
they  returned  to  England,  had  taken  back  with  them  an  old 
negress.  One  of  the  colored  maid-servants  of  the  ladies,  feeling 
no  doubt  that  Mrs.  W ,  although  she  had  recrossed  the  At 
lantic,  would  be  as  much  interested  as  ever  in  her  history,  sent 
innumerable  messages,  beginning  with,  "Pray  tell  her  that  Mrs. 
A.  has  given  me  and  my  children  to  Mrs.  B."  They  were  all 
very  curious  to  know  about  their  former  friend,  Delia,  the  black 
maid,  and  how  she  had  got  on  in  England.  On  being  told  that 
she  had  been  shocked  at  seeing  so  many  beggars,  and  had  scold 
ed  them  for  not  working,  they  laughed  heartily,  saying  it  was  so 
like  her  to  scold  ;  but  they  also  expressed  astonishment  at  the 
idea  of  a  white  mendicant,  there  being  none,  so  far  as  they  knew, 
white  or  colored,  in  Georgia.  One  of  the  ladies  explained  the 
term  "  beggar"  to  signify  in  England,  a  "  mean  white  person  ;" 
and  said  to  an  attendant  who  had  once  accompanied  her  to  the 
north,  "  Do  you  not  remember  some  mean  white  men,  who  asked 
me  for  money  ?"  Talking  over  this  story  in  Alabama,  I  was 
told  that  mendicity  is  not  so  entirely  unknown  in  the  south ;  that 
a  superannuated  negress,  having  a  love  of  rambling,  and  wishing 
to  live  by  begging,  asked  her  master  to  set  her  free,  "for  when  I 
beg,  every  one  asks  me  why  I  do  not  go  to  my  owner."  "  What 
will  you  do  in  winter,"  said  he,  "  when  you  can  not  travel  about  ?" 
"  I  will  come  back  to  you  then,"  she  replied,  "  and  you  will  take 
care  of  me  in  the  cold  weather." 

The  sea  islands  produce  the  finest  cotton,  and  we  saw  many 
women  employed  in  separating  the  cotton  from  the  seeds  with 
their  fingers,  a  neat  and  clean  occupation. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

Rivers  made  turbid  by  the  Clearing  of  Forests. — Land  rising  in  successive 
Terraces. — Origin  of  these. — Bones  of  extinct  Quadrupeds  in  Lower 
Terrace. — Associated  Marine  Shells. — Digging  of  Brunswick  Canal. — 
Extinction  of  Megatherium  and  its  Contemporaries. — Dying  out  of  rare 
Species. — Gordonia  Pubescens. — Life  of  Southern  Planters. — Negroes 
on  a  Rice  Plantation. — Black  Children. — Separate  Negro  Houses. — 
Work  exacted. —  Hospital  for  Negroes. —  Food  and  Dress. —  Black 
Driver. — Prevention  of  Crimes. — African  Tom. — Progress  of  Negroes 
in  Civilization. — Conversions  to  Christianity. — Episcopalian,  Baptist,  and 
Methodist  Missionaries. — Amalgamation  and  Mixture  of  Races. 

WE  returned  from  St.  Simon's  to  Hopeton,  much  pleased  with 
our  expedition.  As  our  canoe  was  scudding  through  the  clear 
waters  of  the  Altamaha,  Mr.  Couper  mentioned  a  fact  which 
shows  the  effect  of  herbage,  shrubs,  and  trees  in  protecting  the 
soil  from  the  wasting  action  of  rain  and  torrents.  Formerly, 
even  during  floods,  the  Altamaha  was  transparent,  or  only  stained 
of  a  darker  color  by  decayed  vegetable  matter,  like  some  streams 
in  Europe  which  flow  out  of  peat  mosses.  So  late  as  1841,  a 
resident  here  could  distinguish  on  which  of  the  two  branches  of 
the  Altamaha,  the  Oconee  or  Ocmulgee,  a  freshet  had  occurred, 
for  the  lands  in  the  upper  country,  drained  by  one  of  these  (the 
Oconee)  had  already  been  partially  cleared  and  cultivated,  so  that 
that  tributary  sent  down  a  copious  supply  of  red  mud,  while  the 
other  (the  Ocmulgee)  remained  clear,  though  swollen.  But  no 
sooner  had  the  Indians  been  driven  out,  and  the  woods  of  their 
old  hunting-grounds  begun  to  give  way  before  the  ax  of  the  new 
settler,  than  the  Ocmulgee  also  became  turbid.  I  shall  have 
occasion,  in  the  sequel,  to  recur  to  this  subject,  when  speaking  of 
some  recently-formed  ravines  of  great  depth  and  width  in  the 
red  mud  of  the  upland  country  near  Milledgeville  in  Georgia. 

The  low  region  bordering  the  Atlantic,  comprising  the  sea- 
islands,  such  as  St.  Simon's,  and  the  flat  or  nearly  level  plains 


CHAP.  XIX  ]  SUCCESSION  OF  TERRACES.  257 

of  the  main  land  immediately  adjoining,  has  an  average  height 
of  from  ten  to  twenty  feet,  although  there  are  a  few  places  where 
it  reaches  forty  feet,  above  the  sea.  It  extends  twenty  miles  in 
land,  and  consists  of  sand  and  clay  of  very  modern  formation,  as 
shown  by  the  included  marine  shells,  which  are  like  those  of 
Skiddaway,  before  mentioned,^  all  identical  with  living  species. 
This  superficial  deposit,  although  chiefly  marine,  contains,  in  some 
parts,  beds  of  fresh-water  origin,  in  which  the  bones  of  extinct 
mammalia  occur.  The  whole  group  would  be  called  by  geolo 
gists  fluvio-marine,  and  is  of  small  depth,  resting  immediately  on 
Eocene,  or  lower  tertiary  strata,  as  I  ascertained  by  examining 
the  shells  brought  up  from  several  wells.  Going  inland  twenty 
miles,  we  corne  to  the  termination  of  this  lower  terrace,  and  as 
cend  abruptly  to  an  upper  platform,  seventy  feet  above  the  lower 
one,  the  strata  composing  which  belong  to  the  Eocene  period. 
This  upper  terrace  also  runs  back  about  twenty  miles  to  the  ab 
rupt  termination  of  a  third  table-land,  which  is  also  about  seventy 
feet  higher,  and  consists  of  Eocene  strata,  by  the  denudation  of 
which  all  these  terraces  arid  escarpments  (or  ancient  sea-cliffs) 
have  been  formed.  Bartram  has,  with  his  usual  accuracy,  al 
luded  to  these  steps,  or  succession  of  terraces,  as  an  important 
geographical  feature  of  the  country,  each  of  them  being  marked 
by  its  own  botanical  characters,  the  prevailing  forest-trees,  as  well 
as  the  smaller  plants,  being  different  in  each. 

To  return  to  the  first  platform,  or  lowest  land,  from  ten  to 
forty  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  it  consists  of  a  modern  de 
posit,  which  extends  400  miles  northward  to  the  Neuse  in  North 
Carolina,  and  probably  farther,  in  the  same  direction,  along  the 
Atlantic  border.  How  far  it  stretches  southward,  I  am  not  in 
formed.  I  conceive  it  to  have  been  accumulated  in  a  sea,  into 
which  many  rivers  poured  during  a  gradual  subsidence  of  the 
land,  and  that  the  strata,  whether  fresh-water  or  marine,  formed 
during  the  sinking  of  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  have  been  since 
brought  up  again  to  their  present  elevation.  Throughout  this 
low,  flat  region,  the  remains  of  extinct  quadrupeds  are  occasion 
ally  met  with,  and  the  deposit  appears  to  be  very  analogous  to 
*  Ante,  p.  234. 


258  BRUNSWICK  CANAL.  [CHAP.  XIX. 

the  great  Pampean  formation  on  the  borders  of  the  Atlantic  in 
South  America,  as  described  by  Mr.  Darwin.  Here  and  in  the 
Pampas  the  skeletons  of  many  quadrupeds  of  the  same  genera, 
such  as  the  Megatherium,  Megalonyx,  Mylodon,  Mastodon, 
and  Equm  occur.  In  both  cases  it  has  been  proved  that  tlio 
mammalia,  all  of  which  differ  specifically,  and  most  of  them  gener- 
ically,  from  those  now  living,  nourished,  nevertheless,  at  a  time 
when  the  Atlantic  was  inhabited  by  the  existing  species  of  mol- 
lusca,  and  when  the  climate,  therefore,  of  the  ocean  at  least, 
could  not  have  varied  materially  from  that  now  prevailing  in 
these  latitudes. 

Through  part  of  the  region  occupied  by  the  modern  deposits 
above  mentioned,  a  canal  was  cut  in  1838—39,  nine  miles  in 
length,  called  the  Brunswick  Canal,  to  unite  the  navigation  of 
the  Altamaha  and  Turtle  rivers  ;  a  rash  undertaking  of  some 
speculators  from  the  northern  states,  which,  had  the  work  been 
completed,  could  not  have  repaid  the  outlay.  About  200,000/. 
(900,000  dollars)  were  expended,  a  sum  which  might  have  gone 
far  toward  obtaining  geological  surveys  of  many  of  the  southern 
states,  whereas  the  only  good  result  was  the  discovery  of  some 
valuable  fossil  remains  ;  and  even  these  fruits  of  the  enterprise 
would  never  have  been  realized,  but  for  the  accidental  presence, 
energy,  and  scientific  knowledge  of  Mr.  Hamilton  Couper.  Part 
of  the  skeleton  of  a  megatherium,  dug  out  in  cutting  the  canal, 
was  so  near  the  surface,  that  it  was  penetrated  by  the  roots  of  a 
pine-tree.  It  occurred  in  clay,  apparently  a  fresh-water  deposit, 
and  underneath  it  were  beds  of  sand,  with  marine  shells  of  recent 
species.  It  was  also  covered  with  sand,  probably  marine,  but 
without  shells.  So  many  parts  of  the  same  skeleton  were  found 
in  juxtaposition  as  to  suggest  the  idea  that  a  whole  carcass  had 
been  floated  by  the  river  to  the  spot,  and  even  where  the  bones 
were  slightly  scattered  they  were  not  injured  by  being  rolled. 
The  remains  of  other  quadrupeds  associated  with  this  gigantic 
sloth,  consisted  of  mylodon,  mastodon,  elephant,  equus,  and  bos, 
besides  a  fossil,  to  which  Mr.  Owen  has  given  the  name  of  Har- 
lanus  americanus,  a  new  genus,  intermediate  between  Lophiodon 
and  Toxodon.  It  had  been  supposed  that  the  hippopotamus  and 


CHAP.  XIX.]  FOSSIL  REMAINS.  259 

BUS  were  among  this  assemblage  of  fossil  genera  :  but  this  was  a 
mistake  ;  nor  have  either  of  these  genera  been  as  yet  met  with, 
fossil  or  recent,  in  any  part  of  America,  although  the  swine  intro 
duced  by  man,  have  multiplied  so  fast.  The  horse  {Equus  curv- 
idens)  was  a  species  having  teeth  in  the  upper  jaw  more  curved 
than  any  living  horse,  ass,  zebra,  or  quagga  ;  and  it  is  singular 
that,  although  there  was  no  wild  representative  of  the  horse  tribe 
on  the  American  continent,  north  or  south,  when  discovered  by 
the  Europeans,  yet  two  other  fossil  horses  were  found  by  Mr. 
Nuttall  on  the  banks  of  the  Neuse,  fifteen  miles  below  Newbern, 
in  North  Carolina.^  The  shells  and  bones  of  a  large  extinct 
species  of  tortoise  were  also  found  to  accompany  the  above-men 
tioned  fossil  quadrupeds  of  Georgia  ;  and  I  myself  picked  up 
many  fragments  of  this  Chelonian  strewed  over  the  banks  of 
earth  cast  up  from  the  Brunswick  Canal. 

In  another  part  of  the  excavations  made  in  digging  the  canal, 
the  ribs  and  vertebrae  of  a  whale  much  rolled,  and  with  barnacles 
attached  to  them,  were  discovered  belonging  to  the  subjacent 
marine  formation.  In  this  sand  the  shells,  as  before  stated,  are 
of  recent  species,  and  Mr.  Hamilton  Couper  has  collected  no  less 
than  forty-five  distinct  species  exclusive  of  Echinoderms. 

In  what  manner,  then,  has  the  destruction  of  these  quadrupeds, 
once  so  widely  spread  over  the  American  continent,  been  brought 
about  ?  That  they  were  exterminated  by  the  arrows  of  the  In 
dian  hunter,  is  the  first  idea  presented  to  the  mind  of  almost 
every  naturalist.  But  the  investigations  of  Lund  and  Clausen 
in  the  limestone  caves  of  Brazil  have  established  the  fact,  that 
with  the  large  mammalia  there  were  associated  a  great  many 
smaller  quadrupeds,  some  of  them  as  diminutive  as  field  mice, 
which  have  all  died  out  together,  while  the  land  shells,  once  their 
contemporaries,  still  continue  to  exist  in  the  same  countries.  We 
must  look,  therefore,  to  causes  more  general  and  powerful  than 
the  intervention  of  man,  to  account  for  the  disappearance  of  the 
ancient  fauna,  an  event  the  more  remarkable,  as  many  of  the 

*  Mr.  Conrad  intrusted  me  with  Mr.  Nuttall's  collection,  and  Mr.  Owen 
has  found  among  them  the  three  species  of  Equidse  here  alluded  to,  Equus 
curvidens,  E.  plicidens^  and  a  third  species  of  the  size  of  E.  asinus. 


260  EXTERMINATING  CAUSES.  [CHAP.  XIX. 

species  had  a  very  wide  range,  and  must  therefore  have  been 
capable  of  accommodating  themselves  to  considerable  variations 
of  temperature.  The  same  species  of  megatherium,  for  example, 
ranged  from  Patagonia  and  the  river  Plata  in  South  America, 
between  latitudes  31°  and  50°  south,  to  corresponding  latitudes 
of  the  northern  continent,  and  was  also  an  inhabitant  of  the  in 
termediate  country  of  Brazil,  in  the  caves  of  which  its  fossil  re 
mains  are  met  with.  The  extinct  elephant  also  of  Georgia  (Ele- 
yrfias  primigenius)  has  been  traced  in  a  fossil  state  northward 
from  the  Altamaha  to  the  Polar  regions,  and  then  south  westward 
through  Siberia  to  the  south  of  Europe. 

As  to  the  exterminating  causes.  I  agree  with  Mr.  Darwin, 
that  it  is  the  height  of  presumption  for  any  geologist  to  be  aston 
ished  that  he  can  not  render  an  account  of  them.  No  naturalist 
can  pretend  to  be  so  well  acquainted  with  all  the  circumstances 
on  which  the  continuance  upon  the  earth  of  any  living  species 
depends,  as  to  be  entitled  to  wonder  if  it  should  diminish  rapidly 
in  number  or  geographical  range.  But  if  his  speculations  should 
embrace  a  period  in  which  considerable  changes  in  physical  geog 
raphy  are  known  to  have  occurred,  as  is  the  case  in  North  and 
South  America  since  the  megatherium  flourished,  how  much 
more  difficult  would  it  be  to  appreciate  all  the  effects  of  local 
modifications  of  climate,  and  changes  in  the  stations  of  contempo 
rary  animals  and  plants,  on  all  which,  and  many  other  condi 
tions,  the  permanence  of  a  species  must  depend.  Until  we  un 
derstand  the  physiological  constitutions  of  organic  beings  so  well 
that  we  can  explain  why  an  epidemic  or  contagious  disease  may 
rage  for  months  or  years,  and  cut  off  a  large  proportion  of  the 
living  individuals  of  one  species  while  another  is  spared,  how  can 
we  hope  to  explain  why,  in  the  great  struggle  for  existence,  some 
species  are  multiplying,  while  others  are  decreasing  in  number  ? 
"  If,"  says  Darwin,  "  two  species  of  the  same  genus,  and  of  closely 
allied  habits,  people  the  same  district,  and  we  can  not  say  why 
one  of  them  is  rare  and  the  other  common,  what  right  have  we  to 
wonder  if  the  rarer  of  the  two  should  cease  to  exist  altogether  ?" 

In  illustration  of  this  principle,  I  may  refer  to  two  beautiful 
evergreens  flourishing  in  this  part  of  Georgia,  species  of  Gordonia 


CHAP.  XIX.]  GORDONIA  FUBESCENS.  261 


(or  Franklinia  of  Bartram),  a  plant  allied  to  the  camellia.  One 
of  these  I  saw  every  where  in  the  swamps  near  the  Altamaha, 
where  it  is  called  the  loblolly  bay  (Gordonia  lasianthus),  forty 
feet  high,  and  even  higher,  with  dark  green  leaves,  and  covered, 
T  am  told,  in  the  flowering  season,  with  a  profusion  of  milk- 
white,  fragrant  blossoms.  This  plant  has  a  wide  range  in  the 
southern  states,  whereas  the  other,  G.  pitbcscens,  often  seen  in 
greenhouses  in  England,  about  thirty  feet  high,  is  confined,  as  I 
am  informed  by  Mr.  Couper,  to  a  very  limited  area,  twenty 
'miles  in  its  greatest  length,  the  same  region  where  Bartram  first 
discovered  it,  seventy  years  ago,  near  Barrington  Ferry,  on  the 
Altamaha.^  In  no  other  spot  in  the  whole  continent  of  Amer 
ica  has  it  ever  been  detected.  If  we  were  told  that  one  of  these 
two  evergreens  was  destined  in  the  next  2000  or  3000  years  to 
become  extinct,  how  could  we  conjecture  Avhich  of  them  would 
endure  the  longest  ?  We  ought  to  know  first  whether  the  area 
occupied  by  the  one  has  been  diminishing,  and  that  of  the  other 
increasing,  and  then  which  of  the  two  plants  has  been  on  the 
advance.  But  even  then  we  should  require  to  foresee  a  count 
less  number  of  other  circumstances  in  the  animate  and  inanimate 
world  affecting  the  two  species,  before  we  could  make  a  probable 
guess  as  to  their  comparative  durability.  A  single  frost  more 
severe  than  that  before  alluded  to,  which  cut  off  the  orange-trees 
in  Florida  after  they  had  lasted  a  century  and  a  half,  might 
baffle  all  our  calculations  ;  or  the  increase  of  some  foe,  a  minute 
parasitic  insect  perhaps,  might  entirely  alter  the  conditions  on 
which  the  existence  of  these  or  any  other  trees,  shrubs,  or  quad 
rupeds  depend. 

During  a  fortnight's  stay  at  Hopeton,  we  had  an  opportunity 
of  seeing  how  the  planters  live  in  the  south,  and  the  condition 
and  prospects  of  the  negroes  on  a  well-managed  estate.  The 
relation  of  the  slaves  to  their  owners  resembles  nothing  in  the 
northern  states.  There  is  an  hereditary  regard  and  often  attach 
ment  on  both  sides,  more  like  that  formerly  existing  between 
lords  and  their  retainers  in  the  old  feudal  times  of  Europe,  than 
to  any  thing  now  to  be  found  in  America.  The  slaves  identify 
*  Bartram,  pp.  159,  465, 


262  NEGROES  ON  A  RICE  PLANTATION.       [CHAP.  XIX. 

themselves  with  the  master,  and  their  sense  of  their  own  import 
ance  rises  with  his  success  in  life.  But  the  responsibility  of 
the- owners  is  felt  to  be  great,  and  to  manage  a  plantation  with 
profit  is  no  easy  task  ;  so  much  judgment  is  required,  and  such  a 
mixture  of  firmness,  forbearance,  and  kindness.  The  evils  of 
the  system  of  slavery  are  said  to  be  exhibited  in  their  worst  light 
when  new  settlers  come  from  the  free  states  ;  northern  men,  who 
are  full  of  activity,  and  who  strive  to  make  a  rapid  fortune,  will 
ing  to  risk  their  own  lives  in  an  unhealthy  climate,  and  who  can 
not  make  allowance  for  the  repugnance  to  continuous  labor  of 
the  negro  race,  or  the  diminished  motive  for  exertion  of  the  slave. 
To  one  who  arrives  in  Georgia  direct  from  Europe,  with  a  vivid 
impression  on  his  mind  of  the  state  of  the  peasantry  there  in 
many  populous  regions,  their  ignorance,  intemperance,  and  im 
providence,  the  difficulty  of  obtaining  subsistence,  and  the  small 
chance  they  have  of  bettering  their  lot,  the  condition  of  the  black 
laborers  on  such  a  property  as  Hopeton,  will  afford  but  small 
ground  for  lamentation  or  despondency.  I  had  many  opportu 
nities,  while  here,  of  talking  with  the  slaves  alone,  or  seeing 
them  at  work.  I  may  be  told  that  this  was  a  favorable  speci 
men  of  a  well-managed  estate  ;  if  so,  I  may  at  least  affirm  that 
mere  chance  led  me  to  pay  this  visit,  that  is  to  say,  scientific 
objects  wholly  unconnected  with  the  "  domestic  institutions"  of 
the  south,  or  the  character  of  the  owner  in  relation  to  his  slaves  ; 
arid  I  may  say  the  same  in  regard  to  every  other  locality  or  pro 
prietor  visited  by  me  in  the  course  of  this  tour.  I  can  but  relate 
what  passed  under  my  own  eyes,  or  what  I  learnt  from  good 
authority,  concealing  nothing. 

There  are  500  negroes  on  the  Hopeton  estate,  a  great  many 
of  whom  are  children,  and  some  old  and  superannuated.  The 
latter  class,  who  would  be  supported  in  a  poor-house  in  England, 
enjoy  here,  to  the  end  of  their  days,  the  society  of  their  neigh 
bors  arid  kinsfolk,  and  live  at  large  in  separate  houses  assigned 
to  them.  The  children  have  no  regular  work  to  do  till  they  are 
ten  or  twelve  years  old.  We  see  that  some  of  them,  at  this 
season,  are  set  to  pick  up  dead  leaves  from  the  paths,  others  to 
attend  the  babies  When  the  mothers  are  at  work,  the  young 


CHAP.  XIX.]  NEGRO  HOUSES.  263 

children  are  looked  after  by  an  old  negress,  called  Mom  Diana. 
Although  very  ugly  as  babies,  they  have  such  bright,  happy 
faces  when  three  or  four  years  old,  and  from  that  age  to  ten  or 
twelve  have  such  frank  and  confiding  manners,  as  to  be  very  en 
gaging.  Whenever  we  met  them,  they  held  out  their  hands  to 
us  to  shake,  and  when  my  wife  caressed  them,  she  was  often 
asked  by  some  of  the  ladies,  whether  she  would  not  like  to  bring 
up  one  of  the  girls  to  love  her,  and  wait  upon  her.  The  parents 
indulge  their  own  fancies  in  naming  their  children,  and  display 
a  singular  taste  ;  for  one  is  called  January,  another  April,  a  third 
Monday,  and  a  fourth  Hard  Times.  The  fisherman  on  the  estate 
rejoices  in  the  appellation  of  "  Old  Bacchus."  Quash  is  the  name 
of  the  favorite  preacher,  and  Bulally  the  African  name  of  another 
negro. 

'  The  out-door  laborers  have  separate  houses  provided  for  them ; 
even  the  domestic  servants,  except  a  few  who  are  nurses  to  the 
white  children,  live  apart  from  the  great  house — an  arrangement 
not  always  convenient  for  the  masters,  as  there  is  no  one  to  an 
swer  a  bell  after  a  certain  hour.  But  if  we  place  ourselves  in 
the  condition  of  the  majority  of  the  population,  that  of  servants, 
we  see  at  once  how  many  advantages  we  should  enjoy  over  the 
white  race  in  the  same  rank  of  life  in  Europe.  In  the  first  place, 
all  can  marry  ;  and  if  a  mistress  should  lay  on  any  young  woman 
here  the  injunction  so  common  in  English  newspaper  advertise 
ments  for  a  maid  of  all  work,  "  no  followers  allowed,"  it  would 
be  considered  an  extraordinary  act  of  tyranny.  The  laborers 
begin  work  at  six  o'clock  in  the  morning,  have  an  hour's  rest  at 
nine  for  breakfast,  and  many  have  finished  their  assigned  task  by 
two  o'clock,  all  of  them  by  three  o'clock.  In  summer  they  di 
vide  their  work  differently,  going  to  bed  in  the  middle  of  the  day, 
then  rising  to  finish  their  task,  and  afterward  spending  a  great 
part  of  the  night  in  chatting,  merry-making,  preaching,  and 
psalm-singing.  At  Christmas  they  claim  a  week's  holidays, 
when  they  hold  a  kind  of  Saturnalia,  and  the  owners  can  get 
no  work  done.  Although  there  is  scarcely  any  drinking,  the 
master  rejoices  when  this  season  is  well  over  without  mischief. 
The  negro  houses  are  as  neat  as  the  greater  part  of  the  cottages 


264  HOSPITAL  FOR  NEGROES.  [CHAP.  XIX. 

in  Scotland  (no  flattering'  compliment  it  must  be  confessed),  are 
provided  always  with  a  back  door,  and  a  hall,  as  they  call  it,  in 
which  is  a  chest,  a  table,  two  or  three  chairs,  arid  a  few  shelves 
for  crockery.  On  the  door  of  the  sleeping  apartment  they  keep 
a  large  wooden  padlock,  to  guard  their  valuables  from  their 
neighbors  when  they  are  at  work  in  the  field,  for  there  is  much 
pilfering  among  them.  A  little  yard  is  often  attached,  in  which 
are  seen  their  chickens,  and  usually  a  yelping  cur,  kept  for  their 
amusement. 

The  winter,  when  the  whites  enjoy  the  best  health,  is  the 
trying  season  for  the  negroes,  who  are  rarely  ill  in  the  riqe- 
grounds  in  summer,  which  are  so  fatal  to  the  whites,  that  when 
the  planters  who  have  retreated  to  the  sea-islands  revisit  their 
estates  once  a  fortnight,  they  dare  not  sleep  at  home.  Such  is 
the  indifference  of  the  negroes  to  heat,  that  they  are  often  found 
sleeping  with  their  faces  upward  in  a  broiling  sun,  instead  of 
lying  under  the  shade  of  a  tree  hard  by.  We  visited  the  hos 
pital  at  Hopeton,  which  consists  of  three  separate  wards,  all  per 
fectly  clean  and  well- ventilated.  One  is  for  men,  another  for 
women,  and  a  third  for  lying-in  women.  The  latter  are  always 
allowed  a  month's  rest  after  their  confinement,  an  advantage 
rarely  enjoyed  by  hard-working  English  peasants.  Although 
they  are  better  looked  after  and  kept  more  quiet,  on  these  occa 
sions,  in  the  hospital,  the  planters  are  usually  baffled  ;  for  the 
women  prefer  their  own  houses,  where  they  can  gossip  with  their 
friends  without  restraint,  and  they  usually  contrive  to  be  taken 
by  surprise  at  home. 

The  negro  mothers  are  often  so  ignorant  or  indolent,  that  they 
can  not  be  trusted  to  keep  awake  and  administer  medicine  to 
their  own  children  ;  so  that  the  mistress  has  often  to  sit  up  all 
night  with  a  sick  negro  child.  In  submitting  to  this,  they  are 
actuated  by  mixed  motives- — a  feeling  of  kindness,  and  a  fear  of 
losing  the  services  of  the  slave;  but  these  attentions  greatly  at 
tach  the  negroes  to  their  owners.  In  general,  they  refuse  to 
take  medicine  from  any  other  hands  but  those  of  their  master  or 
mistress.  The  laborers  are  allowed  Indian  meal,  rice,  and  milk, 
and  occasionally  pork  and  soup,  As  their  rations  are  more  than 


CHAP.  XIX.J  WORK  EXACTED.  265 

they  can  eat,  they  either  return  part  of  it  to  the  overseer,  who 
makes  them  an  allowance  of  money  for  it  at  the  end  of  the  week, 
or  they  keep  it  to  feed  their  fowls,  which  they  usually  sell,  as 
well  as  their  eggs,  for  cash,  to  buy  molasses,  tobacco,  and  other 
luxuries.  When  disposed  to  exert  themselves,  they  get  through 
the  day's  task  in  five  hours,  and  then  amuse  themselves  in  fish 
ing,  and  sell  the  fish  they  take  ;  or  some  of  them  employ  their 
spare  time  in  making  canoes  out  of  large  cypress  trees,  leave 
being  readily  granted  them  to  remove  such  timber,  as  it  aids  the 
landowner  to  clear  the  swamps.  They  sell  the  canoes  for  about 
four  dollars,  for  their  own  profit. 

If  the  mistress  pays  a  visit  to  Savannah,  the  nearest  town, 
she  is  overwhelmed  with  commissions,  so  many  of  the  slaves 
wishing  to  lay  out  their  small  gains  in  various  indulgences,  espe 
cially  articles  of  dress,  of  which  they  are  passionately  fond.  The 
stuff  must  be  of  the  finest  quality,  and  many  instructions  are 
given  as  to  the  precise  color  or  fashionable  shade.  White  mus 
lin,  with  figured  patterns,  is  the  rage  just  now. 

One  day,  when  walking  alone,  I  came  upon  a  "  gang"  of  ne 
groes,  who  were  digging  a  trench.  They  were  superintended  by 
a  black  "  driver,"  who  held  a  whip  in  his  hand.  Some  of  the 
laborers  were  using  spades,  others  cutting  away  the  roots  and 
stumps  of  trees  which  they  had  encountered  in  the  line  of  the 
ditch.  Their  mode  of  proceeding  in  their  task  was  somewhat 
leisurely,  and  eight  hours  a  day  of  this  work  are  exacted,  though 
they  can  accomplish  the  same  in  five  hours,  if  they  undertake  it 
by  the  task.  The  digging  of  a  given  number  of  feet  in  length, 
breadth,  and  depth  is,  in  this  case,  assigned  to  each  ditcher,  and 
a  deduction  made  when  they  fall  in  with  a  stump  or  root.  The 
names  of  gangs  and  drivers  are  odious,  and  the  sight  of  the  whip 
was  painful  to  me  as  a  mark  of  degradation,  reminding  me  that 
the  lower  orders  of  slaves  are  kept  to  their  work  by  mere  bodily 
fear,  and  that  their  treatment  must  depend  on  the  individual 
character  of  the  owner  or  overseer.  That  the  whip  is  rarely 
used,  and  often  held  for  weeks  over  them,  merely  in  terrorem,  is, 
I  have  no  doubt,  true  on  all  well  governed  estates  ;  and  it  is  not 
that  formidable  weapon  which  I  have  seen  exhibited  as  formerly 

VOL.  I M 


266  AFRICAN  TOM.  [CHAP.  XIX. 

iri  use  in  the  West  Indies.  It  is  a  thong  of  leather,  half  an  inch 
wide  and  a  quarter  of  an  inch  thick.  No  ordinary  driver  is 
allowed  to  give  more  than  six  lashes  for  any  offense,  the  head 
driver  twelve,  and  the  overseer  twenty-four.  When  an  estate 
is  under  superior  management,  the  system  is  remarkably  effective 
in  preventing  crime.  The  most  severe  punishment  required  in 
the  last  forty  years,  for  a  body  of  500  negroes  at  Hopeton,  was 
for  the  theft  of  one  negro  from  another.  In  that  period  there 
has  been  no  criminal  act  of  the  highest  grade,  for  which  a  delin 
quent  could  be  committed  to  the  penitentiary  in  Georgia,  and 
there  have  been  only  six  cases  of  assault  and  battery.  As  a  race, 
the  negroes  are  mild  and  forgiving,  and  by  no  means  so  prone  to 
indulge  in  drinking  as  the  white  man  or  the  Indian.  There 
were  more  serious  quarrels,  and  more  broken  heads,  among  the 
Irish  in  a  few  years,  when  they  came  to  dig  the  Brunswick 
Canal,  than  had  been  known  among  the  negroes  in  all  the  sur 
rounding  plantations  for  half  a  century.  The  murder  of  a  hus 
band  by  a  black  woman,  whom  he  had  beaten  violently,  is  the 
greatest  crime  remembered  in  this  part  of  Georgia  for  a  great 
length  of  time. 

Under  the  white  overseer,  the  principal  charge  here  is  given 
to  "  Old  Tom,"  the  head  driver,  a  man  of  superior  intelligence 
and  higher  cast  of  feature.  He  was  the  son  of  a  prince  of  the 
Foulah  tribe,  and  was  taken  prisoner,  at  the  age  of  fourteen,  near 
Timbuctoo.  The  accounts  he  gave  of  what  he  remembered  of 
the  plants  and  geography  of  Africa,  have  been  taken  down  in 
writing  by  Mr.  Couper,  and  confirm  many  of  the  narratives  of 
modern  travelers.  He  has  remained  a  strict  Mahometan,  but  his 
numerous  progeny  of  jet-black  children  and  grandchildren,  all  of 
them  marked  by  countenances  of  a  more  European  cast  than 
those  of  ordinary  negroes,  have  exchanged  the  Koran  for  the  Bible. 

During  the  last  war,  when  Admiral  Cockburn  was  off  this 
coast  with  his  fleet,  he  made  an  offer  of  freedom  to  all  the  slaves 
belonging  to  the  father  of  my  present  host,  and  a  safe  convoy  to 
Canada.  Nearly  all  would  have  gone,  had  not  African  Tom,  to 
whom  they  looked  up  with  great  respect,  declined  the  proposal. 
He  told  them  he  had  first  known  what  slavery  was  in  the  West 


CHAP.  XIX.]  BLACK  MECHANICS.  267 


Indies,  and  had  made  up  his  mind  that  the  English  were 
masters  than  the  Americans.  About  half  of  them,  therefore, 
determined  to  stay  in  St.  Simon's  Island,  and  not  a  few  of  the 
others  who  accepted  the  offer  and  emigrated,  had  their  lives 
shortened  by  the  severity  of  the  climate  in  Canada. 

The  slave  trade  ceased  in  1796,  and  but  few  negroes  were 
afterward  smuggled  into  Georgia  from,  foreign  countries,  except 
indirectly  for  a  short  time  through  Florida  before  its  annexation  ; 
yet  one  fourth  of  the  population  of  this  lower  country  is  said  to 
have  come  direct  from  Africa,  and  it  is  a  good  sign  of  the  prog 
ress  made  in  civilization  by  the  native-born  colored  race,  that 
they  speak  of  these  "  Africanians"  with  much  of  the  contempt 
with  which  Europeans  talk  of  negroes.  v 

I  was  agreeably  surprised  to  see  the  rank  held  here  by  the 
black  mechanics.  One  day  I  observed  a  set  of  carpenters  put 
ting  up  sluices,  and  a  lock  in  a  canal  of  a  kind  unknown  in  this 
part  of  the  world.  The  black  foreman  was  carrying  into  execu 
tion  a  plan  laid  down  for  him  on  paper  by  Mr.  Couper,  who  had 
observed  it  himself  many  years  ago  in  Holland.  I  also  saw  a 
steam-engine,  of  fifteen  horse  power,  made  in  England  by  Bolton 
and  Watt,  and  used  in  a  mill  for  threshing  rice,  which  had  bee,: 
managed  by  a  negro  for  more  than  twelve  years  without  an  acci 
dent.  When  these  mechanics  come  to  consult  Mr.  Couper  01 
business,  their  manner  of  speaking  to  him  is  quite  as  independen 
as  that  of  English  artisans  to  their  employers.  Their  aptitude 
for  the  practice  of  such  mechanical  arts  may  encourage  every 
philanthropist  who  has  had  misgivings  in  regard  to  the  progress 
ive  powers  of  the  race,  although  much  time  will  be  required  to 
improve  the  whole  body  of  negroes,  and  the  movement  must  be  / 
general.  One  planter  can  do  little  by  himself,  so  long  as  educa 
tion  is  forbidden  by  law.  I  am  told  that  the  old  colonial  statutes 
against  teaching  the  slaves  to  read  were  almost  in  abeyance,  and 
had  become  a  dead  letter,  until  revived  by  the  reaction  against 
the  Abolition  agitation,  since  wrhich  they  have  been  rigorously 
enforced  and  made  more  stringent.  Nevertheless,  the  negroes 
are  often  taught  to  read,  and  they  learn  much  in  Sunday  schools, 
and  for  the  most  part  are  desirous  of  instruction. 


268  PROGRESS  OF  NEGROES.  [CHAP.  XIX. 

In  the  hope  of  elevating  the  character  of  some  of  his  negroes, 
and  giving  them  more  self-dependence,  Mr.  Couper,  by  way  of 
experiment,  set  apart  a  field  for  the  benefit  of  twenty -five  picked 
men,  and  gave  up  to  them  half  their  Saturday's  labor  to -till  it. 
In  order  that  they  might  know  its  value,  they  were  compelled  to 
work  on  it  for  the  first  year,  and  the  product,  amounting  to  1500 
dollars,  was  divided  equally  among  them.  But  when,  at  length, 
they  were  left  to  themselves,  they  did  nothing,  and  at  the  end  of 
two  years  the  field  was  uncultivated.  But  there  appears  to  me 
nothing  disheartening  in  this  failure,  which  may  have  been  chiefly 
owing  to  their  holding  the  property  in  common,  a  scheme  which 
was  found  not  to  answer  even  with  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  when 
they  first  colonized  Plymouth — men  whom  certainly  none  will 
accuse  of  indolence  or  a  disposition  to  shrink  from  continuous 
labor.  The  "  dolee  far  niente"  is  doubtless  the  negro's  paradise, 
and  I  once  heard  one  of  them  singing  with  much  spirit  at  Will- 
iamsburg  an  appropriate  song  : — 

"  Old  Virginia  never  tire. 
Eat  hog  and  hominy,  and  lie  by  the  fire ;" 

and  it  is  quite  enough  that  a  small  minority  should  be  of  this 
mind,  to  make  all  the  others  idle  and  unwilling  to  toil  hard  for 
the  benefit  of  the  sluggards. 

When  conversing  with  different  planters  here,  in  regard  to 
the  capabilities  and  future  progress  of  the  black  population,  I  find 
them  to  agree  very  generally  in  the  opinion  that  in  this  part  of 
Georgia  they  appear  under  a  great  disadvantage.  In  St.  Simon's 
island  it  is  admitted,  that  the  negroes  on  the  smaller  estates  are 
more  civilized  than  on  the  larger  properties,  because  they  asso 
ciate  with  a  greater  proportion  of  whites.  In  Glynn  County, 
where  we  are  now  residing,  there  are  no  less  than  4000  negroes 
to  700  whites  ;  whereas  in  Georgia  generally  there  are  only 
281,000  slaves  in  a  population  of  691,000,  or  more  whites  than 
colored  people.  Throughout  the  upper  country  there  is  a  large 
preponderance  of  Anglo-Saxons,  and  a  little  reflection  will  satisfy 
the  reader  how  much  the  education  of  a  race  which  starts  orig 
inally  from  so  low  a  stage  of  intellectual,  social,  moral,  and 


CHAP.  XLX.]  CONVERSION  OF  NEGROES.  269 

spiritual  development,  as  the  African  negro,  must  depend  not  on 
learning  to  read  and  write,  but  on  the  amount  of  familiar  inter 
course  which  they  enjoy  with  individuals  of  a  more  advanced 
race.  So  long  as  they  herd  together  in  large  gangs,  and  rarely 
come  into  contact  with  any  whites  save  their  owner  and  over 
seer,  they  can  profit  little  by  their  imitative  faculty,  and  can 
not  even  make  much  progress  in  mastering  the  English  language, 
that  powerful  instrument  of  thought  and  of  the  communication 
of  ideas,  which  they  are  gaining  in  exchange  for  the  limited  vo 
cabulary  of  their  native  tribes.  Yet,  even  in  this  part  of  Georgia, 
the  negroes  are  very  far  from  stationary,  and  each  generation  is 
acquiring  habits  of  greater  cleanliness  and  propriety  of  behavior, 
while  some  are  learning  mechanical  arts,  and  every  year  many 
of  them  becoming  converts  to  Christianity. 

Although  the  Baptist  and  Methodist  missionaries  have  been 
the  most  active  in  this  important  work,  the  Episcopalians  have 
not  been  idle,  especially  since  Dr.  Elliott  became  Bishop  of 
Georgia,  and  brought  his  talents,  zeal,  and  energy  to  the  task. 
As  he  found  that  the  negroes  in  general  had  no  faith  in  the  effi 
cacy  of  baptism  except  by  complete  immersion,  he  performed  the 
ceremony  as  they  desired.  Indeed,  according  to  the  old  English 
rubric,  all  persons  were  required  to  be  immersed  in  baptism,  ex 
cept  when  they  were  sick,  so  that  to  lose  converts  by  not  com 
plying  with  this  popular  notion  of  the  slaves,  would  hardly  have 
been  justifiable.  It  may  be  true  that  the  poor  negroes  cherish  a 
superstitious  belief  that  the  washing  out  of  every  taint  of  sin  de 
pends  mainly  on  the  particular  manner  of  performing  the  rite, 
and  the  principal  charm  to  the  black  women  in  the  ceremony  of 
total  immersion  consists  in  decking  themselves  out  in  white  robes, 
like  brides,  and  having  their  shoes  trimmed  with  silver.  They 
well  know  that  the  waters  of  the  Altamaha  are  chilly,  and  that 
they  and  the  officiating  minister  run  no  small  risk  of  catching 
cold,  but  to  this  penance  they  most  cheerfully  submit. 

Of  dancing  and  music  the  negroes  are  passionately  fond.  On 
the  Hopeton  plantation  above  twenty  violins  have  been  silenced 
by  the  Methodist  missionaries,  yet  it  is  notorious  that  the  slaves 
were  not  given  to  drink  or  intemperance  in  their  merry-makings. 


270  SEPARATION  OF  CHURCHES.  [CHAP.  XIX. 

At  the  Methodist  prayer-meetings,  they  are  permitted  to  move 
round  rapidly  in  a  ring,  joining  hands  in  token  of  brotherly  love, 
presenting  first  the  right  hand  and  then  the  left,  in  which  ma- 
nceuvre,  I  am  told,  they  sometimes  contrive  to  take  enough  exer 
cise  to  serve  as  a  substitute  for  the  dance,  it  being,  in  fact,  a  kind 
of  spiritual  boulanger,  while  the  singing  of  psalms,  in  and  out  of 
chapel,  compensates  in  no  small  degree  for  the  songs  they  have 
been  required  to  renounce. 

However  much  we  may  feel  inclined  to  smile  at  some  of  these 
outward  tokens  of  conversion,  and  however  crude  may  be  the  no 
tions  of  the  Deity  which  the  poor  African  at  first  exchanges  for 
his  belief  in  the  evil  eye  and  other  superstitious  fears,  it  is  never 
theless  an  immense  step  in  his  progress  toward  civilization  that 
he  should  join  some  Christian  sect.  Before  he  has  time  to  ac 
quire  high  conceptions  of  his  Creator,  or  to  comprehend  his  own 
probationary  state  on  earth,  and  his  moral  and  religious  duties,  it 
is  no  small  gain  that  he  should  simply  become  a  member  of  the 
same  church  with  his  master,  and  should  be  taught  that  the 
white  and  colored  man  are  equal  before  God,  a  doctrine  calcu 
lated  to  raise  him  in  his  own  opinion,  and  in  that  of  the  dominant 
race. 

Until  lately  the  humblest  slave  who  joined  the  Methodist  or 
Baptist  denomination  could  feel  that  he  was  one  of  a  powerful 
association  of  Christians,  which  numbered  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  brethren  in  the  northern  as  well  as  in  the  southern  states. 
He  could  claim  many  schools  and  colleges  of  high  repute  in  New 
England  as  belonging  to  his  own  sect,  and  feel  proud  of  many 
celebrated  writers  whom  they  have  educated.  Unfortunately,  a 
recent  separation,  commonly  called  "  the  north  and  south  split," 
has  severed  these  bonds  of  fellowship  and  fraternity,  and  for  the 
sake  of  renouncing  brotherhood  with  slave-owners,  the  northern 
churches  have  repudiated  all  communion  with  the  great  body  of 
their  negro  fellow  Christians.  What  effect  can  such  estrange 
ment  have  on  the  mind,  whether  of  master  or  slave,  favorable  to 
the  cause  of  emancipation  ?  The  slight  thrown  on  the  aristo 
cracy  of  planters  has  no  tendency  to  conciliate  them,  or  lead  them 
to  assimilate  their  sentiments  to  those  of  their  brethren  in  the 


CHAP.  XIX.]        MIXTURE  OF  RACES.  271 

faith,  with  whom  formerly,  throughout  the  northern  and  free 
states,  they  had  so  intimate  a  connection ;  and  as  for  the  slaves, 
it  is  to  them  a  positive  loss  to  be  thus  rejected  and  disowned. 
The  rank  and  position  of-the  negro  preachers  in  the  south,  whether 
Baptist  or  Methodist,  some  of  them  freemen,  and  of  good  abili 
ties,  is  decidedly  lowered  by  the  severance  of  the  northern  churches, 
which  is  therefore  adverse  to  the  gradual  advancement  of  the 
African  race,  which  can  alone  fit  them  for  manumission. 

Some  of  the  planters  in  Glynn  County  have  of  late  permitted 
the  distribution  of  Bibles  among  their  slaves,  and  it  was  curious 
to  remark  that  they  who  were  unable  to  read  were  as  anxious  to 
possess  them  as  those  who  could.  Besides  Christianizing  the 
blacks,  the  clergy  of  all  sects  are  doing  them  incalculable  service, 
by  preaching  continually  to  both  races  that  the  matrimonial  tie 
should  be  held  sacred,  without  respect  to  color.  To  the  domi 
nant  race  one  of  the  most  serious  evils  of  slavery  is  its  tendency 
to  blight  domestic  happiness  ;  and  the  anxiety  of  parents  for  their 
sons,  and  a  constant  fear  of  their  licentious  intercourse  with  slaves, 
is  painfully  great.  We  know  but  too  much  of  this  evil  in  free 
countries,  wherever  there  is  a  vast  distance  between  the  rich  and 
poor,  giving  a  power  to  wealth  which  insures  a  frightful  amount 
of  prostitution.  Here  it  is  accompanied  with  a  publicity  which 
is  keenly  felt  as  a  disgrace  by  the  more  refined  of  the  white 
women.  The  female  slave  is  proud  of  her  connection  with  a 
white  man,  and  thinks  it  an  honor  to  have  a  mulatto  child,  hop 
ing  that  it  will  be  better  provided  for  than  a  black  child.  Yet 
the  mixed  offspring  is  not  very  numerous.  The  mulattoes  alone 
represent  nearly  all  the  illicit  intercourse  between  the  white  man 
and  negro  of  the  living  generation.  I  am  told  that  they  do  not 
constitute  more  than  two  and  a  half  per  cent,  of  the  whole  popu 
lation.  If  the  statistics  of  the  illegitimate  children  of  the  whites 
born  here  could  be  compared  with  those  in  Great  Britain,  it  might 
lead  to  conclusions  by  no  means  favorable  to  the  free  country. 
Here  there  is  no  possibility  of  concealment,  the  color  of  the  child 
stamps  upon  him  the  mark  of  bastardy,  and  transmits  it  to  great- 
grand-children  born  in  lawful  wedlock  ;  whereas  if,  in  Europe, 
there  was  some  mark  or  indelible  stain  betraying  all  the  delin- 


272  MORAL  CONDITION  OF  NEGROES.        [CHAP.  XIX. 

quencies  and  frailties,  not  only  of  parents,  but  of  ancestors  for 
three  or  four  generations  back,  what  unexpected  disclosures  should 
we  not  witness  ! 

There  are  scarcely  any  instances  of  mulattoes  born  of  a  black 
father  and  a  white  mother.  The  colored  women  who  become  the 
mistresses  of  the  white  men  are  neither  rendered  miserable  nor 
degraded,  as  are  the  white  women  who  are  seduced  in  Europe, 
and  who  are  usually  abandoned  in  the  end,  and  left  to  be  the 
victims  of  want  and  disease.  In  the  northern  states  of  America 
there  is  so  little  profligacy  of  this  kind,  that  their  philanthro 
pists  may  perhaps  be  usefully  occupied  in  considering  how  the 
mischief  may  be  alleviated  south  of  the  Potomac  ;  but  in  Great 
Britain  there  is  so  much  need  of  reform  at  home,  that  the  whole 
thoughts  and  energies  of  the  rich  ought  to  be  concentrated  in  such 
schemes  of  improvement  as  may  enable  us  to  set  an  example  of 
a  higher  moral  standard  to  the  slave-owning  aristocracy  of  the 
Union. 

On  one  of  the  estates  in  this  part  of  Georgia,  there  is  a  mulatto 
mother  who  has  nine  children  by  a  full  black,  and  the  difference 
of  shade  between  them  and  herself  is  scarcely  perceptible.  If  the 
white  blood  usually  predominates  in  this  way  in  the  second  gen 
eration,  as  I  am  told  is  the  case,  amalgamation  would  proceed 
very  rapidly,  if  marriages  between  the  races  were  once  legal 
ized  ;  for  we  see  in  England  that  black  men  can  persuade  very 
respectable  white  women  to  marry  them,  when  all  idea  of  the 
illegality  and  degradation  of  such  unions  is  foreign  to  their 
thoughts. 

Among  the  obstacles  which  the  Christian  missionaries  encount 
er  here  when  they  teach  the  virtue  of  chastity,  I  must  not  omit 
to  mention  the  loose  code  of  morality  which  the  Africans  have  in 
herited  from  their  parents.  My  wife  made  the  acquaintance  of 
a  lady  in  Alabama,  who  had  brought  up  with  great  care  a  col 
ored  girl,  who  grew  up  modest  and  well-behaved,  till  at  length 
she  became  the  mother  of  a  mulatto  child.  The  mistress  re 
proached  her  very  severely  for  her  misconduct,  and  the  girl  at 
first  took  the  rebuke  much  to  heart ;  but  having  gone  home  one 
day  to  vi?it  her  mother,  a  native  African,  she  returned,  saying, 


CHAP.  XIX.]         MORAL  CONDITION  OF  NEGROES.  273 

that  her  parent  had  assured  her  she  had  done  nothing  wrong,  and 
had  no  reason  to  feel  ashamed.  When  we  are  estimating,  there 
fore,  the  amount  of  progress  made  by  the  American  negroes  since 
they  left  their  native  country,  we  ought  always  to  bear  in  mind 
from  how  low  a  condition,  both  morally  and  intellectually  consia- 
ered,  they  have  had  to  mount  up. 


END    Or    THE    FIRST    VOLUME. 


A   SECOND   VISIT 


THE    UNITED    STATES 


NORTH  AMERICA. 


BY  SIR  CHARLES  LYELL,  F.R.S., 

PRESIDENT   OF   THE   GEOLOGICAL  SOCIETY   OK  LONDON,   AUTHOR   OF   "THE   PRINCIPLES 
OF  GEOLOGY,"   AND   "TRAVELS   IN  NORTH  AMERICA." 


IN     TWO     VOLUMES. 
VOL.      II. 


NE  W    YORK: 

HARPER   &    BROTHERS,    PUBLISHERS. 
LONDON:    JOHN    MURRAY. 

1849. 


CONTENTS 


THE    SECOND    VOLUME. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

PA(3E 

Darien  to  Savannah. — Black  Baptist  Church  and  Preacher. — Negro 
Prayer. — Negro  Intelligence. — Bribery  of  Irish  Voters. — Dirt-Eaters. 
— Railway  Expedition  on  Hand-Car. — Geology  of  Georgia. — Negroes 
more  progressive  in  Upper  Country. — Indifference  of  Georgians  to 
Winter  Cold. — Want  of  Elbow-Room  in  Pine-Barrens  13 


CHAPTER  XXL 

Indian  Mounds  and  Block-house  at  Macon,  Georgia. — Fashionists. — 
Funeral  of  Northern  Man. — Geology  and  silicified  Corals  and  Shells 
— Stage  Traveling  to  Milledgeville. — Negro  Children. — Home-made 
Soap. — Decomposition  of  Gneiss. — Deep  Ravines  recently  excavated 
after  clearing  of  Forest. — Man  shot  in  a  Brawl. — Disappointed  Place- 
Hunter. — Lynch  Law  in  Florida. — Repeal  of  English  Corn-Laws. — 
War  Spirit  abating  .......... 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

Macon  to  Columbus  by   Stage. — Rough  Traveling 

River. — Columbus. — Recent  Departure  of  Creek  Indians. — Falls  of  the 
Chatahoochie. — Competition  of  Negro  and  White  Mechanics. — Age 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

of  Pine  Trees. — Abolitionist  "Wrecker"  in  Railway  Car. — Runaway 
Slave.— Sale    of  Novels   by   News-boys.— Character   of  Newspaper 
r  Press. — Geology  and  Cretaceous  Strata,  Montgomery. — Curfew. — Sun- 
xlay  School  for  Negroes. — Protracted  Meeting 34 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

Voyage  from  Montgomery  to  Mobile. — Description  of  a  large  River 
Steamer. — Shipping  of  Cotton  at  Bluffs. — Fossils  collected  at  Land 
ings. — Collision  of  Steamer  with  the  Boughs  of  Trees. — Story  of  a  Ger 
man  Stewardess. — Emigration  of  Stephanists  from  Saxony. — Perpetu 
ation  of  Stephanist  and  Mormon  Doctrines. — Distinct  Table  for  Colored 
and  White  Passengers. — Landing  at  Claiborne  by  Torchlight. — Fossil 
Shells.  .  44 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

Claiborne,  Alabama. — Movers  to  Texas. — State  Debts  and  Liabilities. — 
Lending  .Money  to  half-settled  States.---Rumors  of  War  with  England. 
— Macon,  Alabama. — Sale  of  Slaves] — Drunkenness  in  Alabama. — 
Laws  against  Dueling. — Jealousy  of  Wealth. — Emigration  to  the  West. 
— Democratic  Equality  of  Whites. — Skeleton  of  Fossil  Whale  or  Zeu- 
glodon. — Voyage  to  Mobile 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

Voyage  from  Mobile  to  Tuscaloosa. — Visit  to  the  Coal-field  of  Alabama. 
— Its  Agreement  in  Age  with  the  ancient  Coal  of  Europe. — Absen 
teeism  in  Southern  States. — Progress  of  Negroes. — Unthriftiness  of 
Slave-Labor. — University  of  Tuscaloosa. — Churches. — Bankruptcies. 
— Judges  and  Law  Courts. — Geology  on  the  Tombeckbee  River. — 
Artesian  Wells. — Limestone  Bluff  of  St.  Stephens. — Negro  shot  by 
Overseer. — Involuntary  Efforts  of  the  Whites  to  civilize  the  Negroes. 
— New  Statute  in  Georgia  against  Black  Mechanics. — The  Effects  of 
speedy  Emancipation  and  the  free  Competition  of  White  and  Black 
Laborers  considered  ..........  67 


CONTENTS.  vii 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

PAGE 

Return  to  Mobile. — Excursion  to  the  Shores  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. — 
View  from  Lighthouse. — Mouth  of  Alabama  River. — Gnathodon  in 
habiting  Brackish  Water. — Banks  of  these  Fossil  Shells  far  Inland. — 
Miring  of  Cattle. — Yellow  Fever  at  Mobile  in  1839. — Fire  in  same 
Year. — Voyage  from  Mobile  to  New  Orleans. — Movers  to  Texas. — 
Lake  Pontchartrain. — Arrival  at  New  Orleans. — St.  Louis  Hotel. 
— French  Aspect  of  City. — Carnival.  Procession  of  Masks  .  .  84 

CHAPTER  XXVII. 

Catholic  Cathedral,  New  Orleans. — French  Opera. — Creole  Ladies. — 
v  Quadroons. — Marriage  of  Whites  with  Quadroons. — St.  Charles 
Theater. — English  Pronunciation. — Duelist's  Grave, — Ladies'  Ordina 
ry . — Procession  of  Fire  Companies. — Boasted  Salubrity  of  New  Orleans. 
— Goods  selling  at  Northern  Prices. — Mr.  W'ilde. — Roman  Law. — 
Shifting  of  Capital  to  Baton  Rouge. — Debates  in  Houses  of  Legisla- 
lature. — Convention  and  Revision  of  the  Laws. — Policy  of  Periodical 
State  Conventions. — Judges  cashiered. — Limitation  of  their  Term  of 
Office .  ,  93 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

Negroes  not  attacked  by  Yellow  Fever. — History  of  Mr.  Wilde's  Poem. 
The  Market,  New  Orleans. — Motley  Character  of  Population. — Levee 
and  Steamers.  First  sight  of  Mississippi  River. — View  from  the  Cupola 
of  the  St.  Charles. — Site  of  new  Orleans. — Excursion  to  Lake  Pont 
chartrain. — Shell  Road. — Heaps  of  Gnathodou. — Excavation  for  Gas- 
Works. — Buried  upright  Trees. — Pere  Antoine's  Date-palm  .  .  102 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 

Excursion  from  New  Orleans  to  the  Mouths  of  the  River. — Steamboat 
Accidents. — River  Fogs. — Successive  growths  of  Willow  on  River 
Bank. — Pilot-Station  of  the  Balize. — Lighthouse  destroyed  by  Hurri 
cane. — Reeds,  Shells,  and  Birds  on  Mud-banks. — Drift-wood. — Diffi 
culty  of  estimating  the  annual  Increase  of  Delta. — Action  of  Tides  and 


viii  CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Currents. — Tendency  in  the  old  Soundings  to  be  restored. — Changes 
of  Mouths  in  a  Century  inconsiderable. — Return  to  New  Orleans. — 
Battle-ground. — Sugar-Mill. — Contrast  of  French  and  Anglo-American 
Races. — Causes  of  Difference. — State  and  Progress  of  Negroes  in  Lou 
isiana  .....  ....  .111 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

Voyage  from  New  Orleans  to  Port  Hudson. — The  Coast,  Villas,  and 
Gardens. — Cotton  Steamers. — Flat  Boats. — Crevasses,  Inundations. — 
Decrease  of  Steamboat  Accidents. — Snag-Boat. — Musquitoes. — Natural 
Rafts. — Bartram  on  buried  Trees  at  Port  Hudson. — Dr.  Carpenter's 
Observations. — Landslip  described. — Ancient  Subsidence  in  the  Delta 
followed  by  an  upward  Movement,  deducible  from  the  buried  Forest 
at  Port  Hudson  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .129 

CHAPTER  XXXI. 

Fontania  near  Port  Hudson. — Lake  Solitude. — Floating  Island. — Bony 
Pike. — Story  of  the  Devil's  Swamp. — Embarking  by  Night  in  Steam- 
Boat. — Literary  Clerk. — Old  Levees  undermined. — Succession  of  up 
right  Trees  in  Bank. — Raccourci  Cut-off. — Bar  at  Mouth  of  Red  River. 
— Shelly  Fresh- water  Loam  of  Natchez. — Recent  Ravines  in  Table- 
Land. — Bones  of  extinct  Quadrupeds. — Human  Fossil  Bone. — Ques 
tion  of  supposed  co-existence  of  Man  with  extinct  Mammalia  discussed. 
— Tornado  at  Natchez. — Society,  Country  Houses,  and  Gardens. — 
Landslips. — Indian  Antiquities 148 

CHAPTER  XXXII. 

Natchez. — Vidah'a  and  Lake  Concordia. — Hybernations  of  Aligator. — 
Bonfire  on  Floating  Raft. — Grand  Gulf. — Magnolia  Steamer. — Vicks- 
burg  to  Jackson  (Mississippi)  by  Railway. — Fossils  on  Pearl  River. — 
Ordinary  at  Jackson. — Story  of  Transfer  of  State-House  from  Natchez. 
—Vote  by  Ballot. — Popular  Election  of  Judges.— Voyage  from  Vicks- 
burg  to  Memphis. — Monotony  of  River  Scenery. — Squall  of  Wind. — 
Actors  on  Board. — Negro  mistaken  for  White. — Manners  in  the  Back 
woods. — Inquisitiveness. — Spoilt  Children. — Equality  and  Leveling. 
—Silence  of  English  Newspapers  on  Oregon  Question.  .  .  .155 


CONTENTS.  ix 


CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

PAGE 

Bluffs  at  Memphis. — New  Madrid. — No  Inn. — Undermining  of  River 
Bank. — Examination  of  Country  shaken  by  Earthquake  of  lSll-1'2. — 
Effects  of  Passage  of  Waves  through  Alluvial  Soil. — Circular  Cavities 
or  Sand-Bursts. — Open  Fissures. — Lake  Eulalie  drained  by  Shocks. — 
Borders  of  Sunk  Country,  west  of  New  Madrid. — Dead  Trees  stand 
ing  erect. — A  slight  Shock  felt. — Trade  in  Peltries  increased  by  Earth 
quake. — Trees  erect  in  new  formed  Lakes. — Indian  Tradition  of 
Shocks. — Dreary  Forest  Scene. — Rough  Quarters. — Slavery  in  Mis*1 
souri .  171 


CHAPTER  XXXIV, 

Alluvial  Formations  of  the  Mississippi,  ancient  and  modern. — Delta  de 
nned. — Great  Extent  of  Wooded  Swamps. — Deposits  of  pure  Veget 
able  Matter. — Floors  of  Blue  Clay  with  Cypress  Roots. — Analogy  to 
Ancient  Coal-measures. — Supposed  "  Epoch  of  existing  Continents." — 
Depth  of  Fresh-water  Strata  in  Deltas. — Time  required  to  bring  down 
the  Mud  oft  he  Mississippi. — New  Experiments  and  Observations  re 
quired. — Great  Age  of  buried  and  living  Cypress-trees. — Older  and 
newer  Parts  of  Alluvial  Plain. — Upraise  i  Terraces  of  Natchez,  &c., 
and  the  Ohio,  the  Monuments  of  an  older  Alluvial  Formation. — Grand 
Oscillation  of  Level. — The  ancient  Valleys  inhabited  by  Quadrupeds 
now  extinct. — Land  shells  not  changed. — Probable  Rate  of  Subsidence 
and  Upheaval. — Relative  Age  of  the  ancient  Alluvium  of  the  Missis 
sippi,  and  the  Northern  Drift 183 


CHAPTER  XXXV. 

Departure  from  New  Madrid. — Night-watch  for  Stecimers. — Scenery  of 
the  Ohio  River. — Mount  Vernon,  Ornithology. — No  Undergrowth  in 
Woods. — Spring  Flowers. — Visit  to  Dr.  Dale  Owen,  New  Harmony. — 
Fossil  Forest  of  erect  Trees  in  Coal-measures. — Movers  migrating 
Westward.— Voyage  to  Louisville.— Professional  Zeal  of  one  of  "  the 
Pork  Aristocracy." — Fossil  Coral-reef  at  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio,  Louis 
ville. — Fossil  Zoophites  as  perfect  as  recent  Stone-corals  .  .  .  200 


CONTEXTS. 


CHAPTER  XXXVI. 

PACK 

Louisville. — Noble  Site  for  a  Commercial  City. — Geology. — Medical 
Students. — Academical  Rotation  in  Office. — Episcopal  Church. — 
Preaching  against  the  Reformation. — Service  in  \Black  Methodist 
Church. — Improved  Condition  of  Negroes  in  KefK^cky. — A  colored 
Slave  married  as  a  free  White/— Voyage  to  Cincinnati. — Naturalized 
English  Artisan  gambling. — Sources  of  Anti-British  Antipathies. — 
Progress  of  Cincinnati. — Increase  of  German  Settlers. — Democracy  of 
Romanists. — Geology  of  Mill  Creek. — Land  Tortoises. — Observatory. 
— Cultivation  of  the  Vine. — Sculp ture  by  Hiram  Powers  .  .  .210 

CHAPTER  XXXVII. 

Cincinnati  to  Pittsburg. — Improved  Machinery  of  Steamer. — Indian 
Mound. — Gravel  Terraces.— Pittsburg  Fire. — Journey  to  Greensburg. 
Scenery  like  England. — Oregon  War  Question. — Fossil  Foot-prints  of 
Air-breathing  Reptile  in  Coal  Strata. — Casts  of  Mud-cracks. — Foot 
prints  of  Birds  and  Dogs  sculptured  by  Indians. — Theories  respecting 
the  Geological  Antiquity  of  highly  organized  Vertebrata. — Prejudices 
opposed  to  the  Reception  of  Geological  Truths. — Popular  Education 
the  only  Means  of  preventing  a  Collision  of  Opinion  between  the 
Multitude  and  the  Learned 223 


CHAPTER  XXXVIII. 

Greensburg  to  Philadelphia. — Crossing  the  Alleghany  Mountains.— 
Scenery. — Absence  of  Lakes. — Harrisburg. — African  Slave-trade. — 
Railway  Meeting  at  Philadelphia. — Borrowing  Money  for  Public 
Works. — Negro  Episcopal  Clergyman. — Washington. — National  Fair 
and  Protectionist  Doctrines. — Dog-wood  in  Virginia. — Excursion  with 
Dr.  Wyman. — Natural  History. — Musk-rats. — Migration  of  Humming 
birds  to  New  Jersey 239 

CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

New  York,  clear  Atmosphere  and  gay  Dresses. — Omnibuses. — Naming  of 
Streets. — Visit  to  Audubon.— Croton  Aqueduct.— Harpers'  Printing 
Establishment. — Lar^e  Sale  of  Works  by  English  and  American 


CONTENTS.  xi 


PAGE 

Authors. — Cheapness  of  Books. — International  Copyright. — Sale  of 
Eugene  Sue's  Wandering  Jew. — Tendency  of  the  Work. — Mr.  Galla- 
tin  on  Indian  Corn. — War  with  Mexico. — Facility  of  raising  Troops. — 
Dr.  Dewey  preaching  against  War. — Cause  of  Influence  of  Unitarians. 
— Geological  Excursion  to  Albany. — Helderberg  War. — Voting  Thanks 
to  the  Third  House. — Place-hunting. — Spring  Flowers. — Geology  and 
Taconic  System 248 


CHAPTER  XL. 

Construction  and  Management  of  Railways  in  America. — Journey  by 
Long  Island  from  New  York  to  Boston. — Whale  Fishery  in  the  Pacific. 
— Chewing  Tobacco. — Visit  to  Wenham  Lake. — Cause  of  the  superior  " 
Permanence  of  Wenham  Lake  Ice. — Return  to  Boston. — Skeletons  of 
Fossil  Mastodon. — Food  of  these  extinct  Quadrupeds. — Anti-war  De 
monstration. — Voyage  to  Halifax. — Dense  Fog. — Large  Group  of  Ice 
bergs  seen  on  the  Ocean. — Transportation  of  Rocks  by  Icebergs. — 
Danger  of  fast  Sailing  among  Bergs. — Aurora  Borealis. — Connection 
of  this  Phenomenon  with  Drift  Ice. — Pilot  with  English  Newspapers. 
—Return  to  Liverpool.  ...  264 


/** 

Li&rwn 

u          -»-"  ••  \, 


A  SECOND  VISIT 

TO 

THE    UNITED    STATES, 


CHAPTER    XX. 

Darien  to  Savannah. — Black  Baptist  Church  and  Preacher. — Negro  Prayer. 
— Ne^ro  Intelligence. — Bribery  of  Irish  Voters. — Dirt  Eaters. — Railway 
Expedition  on  Hand-Car. — Geology  of  Georgia. — Negroes  more  pro 
gressive  in  Upper  Country. — Indifference  of  Georgians  to  Winter  Cold. — 
Want  of  Elbow-Room  in  Pine-Barrens. 

Jan.  9,  1846. — WHEN  I  had  finished  my  geological  exami 
nation  of  the  southern  and  maritime  part  of  Georgia,  near  the 
mouth  of  the  Altamaha  river,  I  determined  to  return  northward 
to  Savannah,  that  I  might  resume  my  survey  at  the  point  where 
I  left  off  in  1842,*  and  study  the  tertiary  and  cretaceous  strata 
between  the  Savannah  and  Alabama  rivers. 

On  our  way  back  from  Hopeton  to  Darien,  Mr.  Couper  and 
his  son  accompanied  us  in  a  canoe,  and  we  passed  through  the 
General's  Cut.  a  canal  so  called  because,  according  to  tradition, 
Oglethorpe's  soldiers  cut  it  out  with  their  swords  in  one  day. 
We  met  a  great  number  of  negroes  paddling  their  canoes  on  their 
way  back  from  Darien,  for  it  was  Saturday,  when  they  are  gen 
erally  allowed  a  half  holiday,  and  they  had  gone  to  sell  on  their 
own  account  their  poultry,  eggs,  and  fish, 'and  were  bringing  back 
tobacco,  clothes,  and  other  articles  of  use  or  luxury. 

Having  taken  leave  of  our  kind  host,  we  waited  some  hours  at 
Darien  for  a  steamer,  which  was  to  touch  there  on  its  way  from 
St.  Augustine  in  Florida,  and  which  conveyed  us  speedily  to  Sa- 
*  See  "Travels  in  North  America,"  vol.  i.  pp.  155-174. 


14  BLACK  BAPTIST  PREACHER.  [Cn^p.  XX. 

vannah.  Next  day,  I  attended  afternoon  service  in  a  Baptist 
church  at  Savannah,  in  which  I  found  that  I  was  the  only  white 
man,  the  congregation  consisting  of  about  COO  negroes,  of  various 
shades,  most  of  them  very  dark.  As  soon  as  I  entered  I  was 
shown  to  a  seat  reserved  for  strangers,  near  the  preacher.  First 
the  congregation  all  joined,  both  men  and  women,  very  harmoni 
ously  in  a  hymn,  most  of  them  having  evidently  good  ears  for 
music,  and  good  voices.  The  singing  was  followed  by  prayers, 
not  read,  but  delivered  without  notes  by  a  negro  of  pure  African 
blood,  a  gray-headed  venerable-looking  man,  with  a  fine  sonor 
ous  voice,  named  Marshall.  He,  as  I  learnt  afterward,  has  the 
reputation  of  being  one  of  their  best  preachers,  and  he  concluded 
by  addressing  to  them  a  sermon,  also  without  notes,  in  good  style, 
and  for  the  most  part  in  good  English  ;  so  much  so,  as  to  make 
me  doubt  wrhether  a  few  ungramrnatical  phrases  in  the  negro 
idiom  might  not  have  been  purposely  introduced  for  the  sake  of 
bringing  the  subject  home  to  their  family  thoughts.  He  got  very 
successfully  through  one  flight  about  the  gloom  of  the  valley  of 
the  shadow  of  death,  and,  speaking  of  the  probationary  state  of 
a  pious  man  left  for  a  while  to  his  own  guidance,  and  when  in 
danger  of  failing  saved  by  the  grace  of  God,  he  compared  it  to  an 
eagle  teaching  her  newly  fledged  offspring  to  fly,  by  carrying  it 
up  high  into  the  air,  then  dropping  it,  and,  if  she  sees  it  falling 
to  the  earth,  darting  with  the  speed  of  lightning  to  save  it  before 
it  reaches  the  ground.  Whether  any  eagles  really  teach  their 
young  to  fly  in  this  manner,  I  leave  the  ornithologist  to  decide  ; 
but  when  described  in  animated  and  picturesque  language,  yet  by 
no  means  inflated,  the  imagery  was  well  calculated  to  keep  the 
attention  of  his  hearers  awake.  He  also  inculcated  some  good 
practical  maxims  of  morality,  and  told  them  they  were  to  look  to 
a  future  state  of  rewards  and  punishments  in  which  God  would 
deal  impartially  with  "  the  poor  and  the  rich,  the  black  man  and 
the  wrhite." 

I  went  afterward,  in  the  evening,  to  a  black  Methodist  church, 
where  I  and  two  others  were  the  only  white  men  in  the  whole 
congregation  ;  but  I  was  less  interested,  because  the  service  and 
preaching  was  performed  by  a  white  minister.  Nothing  in  my 


CHAP.  XX.]  NEGRO  BAPTISTS.  15 


whole  travels  gave  me  a  higher  idea  of  the  capabilities  of  the 
negroes,  than  the  actual  progress  which  they  have  made,  even  in 
a  part  of  a  slave  state,  where  they  outnumber  the  whites,  than 
this  Baptist  meeting.  To  see  a  body  of  African  origin,  who  had 
joined  one  of  the  denominations  of  Christians,  and  built  a  church 
for  themselves — who  had  elected  a  pastor  of  their  own  race,  and 
secured  him  an  annual  salary,  from  whom  they  were  listening  to 
a  good  sermon,  scarcely,  if  at  all,  below  the  average  standard  of 
the  compositions  of  white  ministers — to  hear  the  whole  service 
respectably,  and  the  singing  admirably  performed,  surely  marks 
an  astonishing  step  in  civilization. 

The  pews  were  well  fitted  up,  and  the  church  well  ventilated, 
and  there  was  no  disagreeable  odor  in  either  meeting-house.  It 
was  the  winter  season,  no  doubt,  but  the  room  was  warm  and 
the  numbers  great.  The  late  Mr.  Sydney  Smith,  when  he  had 
endeavored  in  vain  to  obtain  from  an  American  of  liberal  views, 
some  explanation  of  his  strong  objection  to  confer  political  and 
social  equality  on  the  blacks,  drew  from  him  at  length  the  reluc 
tant  confession  that  the  idea  of  any  approach  to  future  amalga 
mation  was  insufferable  to  any  man  of  refinement,  unless  he  had 
lost  the  use  of  his  olfactory  nerves.  On  hearing  which  Mr. 
Smith  exclaimed — 

"  '  Et  si  non  alium  late  jactaret  odorem 
Civis  erat !'  * 

And  such,  then,  are  the  qualifications  by  which  the  rights  of 
suffrage  and  citizenship  are  to  be  determined  !" 

A  Baptist,  missionary,  with  whom  I  conversed  on  the  capacity 
of  the  negro  race,  told  me  that  he  was  once  present  when  one  of 
their  preachers  delivered  a  prayer,  composed  by  himself,  for  the  or 
dination  of  a  minister  of  his  sect,  which,  said  he,  was  admirable 
in  its  conception,  although  the  sentences  were  so  ungrammatical, 
that  they  would  pass,  with  a  stranger,  for  mere  gibberish.  The 
prayer  ran  thus  : — 

"  Make  he  good,  like  he  say, 
Make  he  say,  like  he  good, 
Make  he  say,  make  he  good,  like  he  God." 

*  Virgil,  Georg.  ii.  133. 


16  NEGRO  INTELLIGENCE.  [CHAP.  XX. 

Which  may  be  thus  interpreted  : — Make  him  good  as  his  doc 
trine,  make  his  doctrine  as  pure  as  his  life,  and  may  both  be  in 
the  likeness  of  his  God. 

This  anecdote  reminds  me  of  another  proof  of  negro  intelli 
gence,  related  to  me  by  Dr.  Le  Conte,  whose  black  carpenter 
came  to  him  one  day,  to  relate  to  him,  with  great  delisrht,  a  grand 
discovery  he  had  made,  namely,  that  each  side  of  a  hexagon  was 
equal  to  the  radius  of  a  circle  drawn  about  it.  When  informed 
that  this  property  of  a  hexagon  had  long  been  known,  he  re 
marked  that  if  it  had  been  taught  him,  it  would  have  been  prac 
tically  of  great  use  to  him  in  his  business. 

There  had  been  "  a  revival"  in  Savannah  a  short  time  before 
my  return,  conducted  by  the  Methodists,  in  the  course  of  which 
a  negro  girl  had  been  so  much  excited,  as  to  be  thrown  into  a 
trance.  The  physician  who  attended  her  gave  me  a  curious  de 
scription  of  the  case.  If  the  nerves  of  only  one  or  two  victims 
are  thus  overwrought,  it  is  surely  more  than  questionable  whether 
the  evil  does  not  counterbalance  all  the  good  done,  by  what  is 
called  "the  awakening"  of  the  indifferent. 

I  inquired  one  day,  when  conversing  with  some  of  the  citizens 
here,  whether,  as  New  York  is  called  the  Empire  State,  Penn 
sylvania  the  Keystone  State,  Massachusetts  the  Bay  State,  and 
Vermont,  when  the  question  of  its  separation  from  New  Hamp 
shire  was  long  under  discussion,  "  the  Future  State,"  in  short,  as 
almost  all  had  some  name,  had  they  any  designation  for  Georgia  ? 
It  ought,  they  said,  to  be  styled  the  Pendulum  state,  for  the 
Whigs  and  Democrats  get  alternately  possession  of  power  ;  so 
that  each  governor  is  of  opposite  politics  to  his  predecessor.  The 
metropolis,  they  added,  imitates  the  example  of  the  State,  elect 
ing  the  mayor  and  aldermen  of  Savannah  one  year  from  the  Dem 
ocratic  and  the  next  from  the  Whig  party.  It  has  been  of  late 
a  great  point,  in  electioneering  tactics,  to  secure  the  votes  of  fifty 
or  sixty  Irish  laborers,  who  might  turn  the  scale  here,  as  they 
have  so  often  done  in  New  York,  in  the  choice  of  city  officers. 
In  the  larger  city  they  were  conciliated  for  some  years  by  em 
ployment  in  the  Croton  waterworks,  so  that  "  pipe-laying"  be 
came  the  slang  term  for  this  kind  of  bribery  ;  here,  it  ought  to 


CHAP.  XX.]  DIRT-EATERS.  17 

be  called  "  reed-cutting,"  for  they  set  the  Hibernians  to  cut  down 
a  dense  crop  of  tall  reeds  (Sesbania  vesicaria),  which  covers  the 
canal  and  the  swamps  round  the  city,  growing  to  the  height  of 
fifteen  feet,  and,  like  the  city  functionaries,  renewed  every  year. 
Some  members  of  the  medical  college,  constituting  a  board  of 
health,  have  just  come  out  with  a  pamphlet,  declaring,  that  by 
giving  to  the  sun's  rays,  in  summer,  free  access  to  the  mud  in 
the  bogs,  and  thus  promoting  the  decay  of  vegetable  matter,  the 
cutting  down  of  these  reeds  has  caused  malaria. 

In  the  course  of  all  my  travels,  I  had  never  seen  one  opossum 
in  the  woods,  nor  a  single  racoon,  their  habits  being  nocturnal, 
yet  we  saw  an  abundant  supply  of  both  of  them  for  sale  in  the 
market  here.  The  negroes  relish  them  much,  though  their  flesh 
is  said  to  be  too  coarse  and  greasy  for  the  palate  of  a  white 
man.  The  number  of  pine-apples  and  bananas  in  the  market, 
reminded  us  of  the  proximity  of  the  West  Indies.  We  ob 
served  several  negroes  there,  whose  health  had  been  impaired 
by  dirt-eating,  or  the  practice  of  devouring  aluminous  earth — a 
diseased  appetite,  which,  as  I  afterward  found,  prevails  in  sev 
eral  parts  of  Alabama,  where  they  eat  clay.  I  heard  various 
speculations  on  the  origin  of  this  singular  propensity,  called 
"  geophagy"  in  some  medical  books.  One  author  ascribes  it  to 
the  feeding  of  slaves  too  exclusively  on  Indian  corn,  which  is  too 
nourishing,  and  has  not  a  sufficiency  in  it  of  inorganic  matter, 
so  that  when  they  give  it  to  cattle,  they  find  it  best  to  grind  up 
the  cob  and  part  of  the  stalk  with  the  grain.  But  this  notion 
seems  untenable,  for  a  white  person  was  pointed  out  to  me,  who 
was  quite  as  sickly,  and  had  a  green  complexion,  derived  from 
this  same  habit ;  and  I  was  told  of  a  young  lady  in  good  circum 
stances,  who  had  never  been  stinted  of  her  food,  yet  who  could 
not  be  broken  of  eating  clay. 

Jan.  13. — From  Savannah  we  went  by  railway  to  Macon  in 
Georgia,  a  distance   of  191    miles,  my  wife   going   direct   in   a    1 
train  which  carried  her  in  about  twelve  hours  to  her  destination, 
accompanied   by  one  of  the   directors  of  the    railway  company,    I 
who  politely  offered  to  escort  her.      The  same  gentleman  sup-    \ 
plied  me  with  a  hand-car  and  three  negroes,  so  that  I  was  able   ! 
to  perform  the  journey  at  my  leisure,  stopping  at  all  the  recent 


18  EXPEDITION  ON  HAND-CAR.  [CHAP.  XX. 


cuttings,  and  examining  the  rocks  and  fossils  on  the  way.  I 
was  desirous  of  making  these  explorations,  because  this  line  of 
road  traverses  the  entire  area  occupied  by  the  tertiary  strata  be 
tween  the  sea  and  the  borders  of  the  granitic  region,  which  com 
mences  at  Macon,  and  the  section  was  parallel  to  that  previously 
examined  by  me  on  the  Savannah  river  in  1842.  When  I 
came  to  low  swampy  grounds,  or  pine-barrens,  where  there  were 
no  objects  of  geological  interest,  my  black  companions  propelled 
me  onward  at  the  rate  of  ten  or  twelve  miles  an  hour,  by  turning 
a  handle  connected  with  the  axis  of  the  wheels.  Their  motions 
were  like  those  of  men  drawing  water  from  a  well.  Through 
out  the  greater  part  of  the  route,  an  intelligent  engineer  accom 
panied  me.  As  there  Avas  only  one  line  of  rail,  and  many 
curves,  and  as  the  negroes  can  not  be  relied  on  for  caution,  he 
was  anxious  for  my  safety,  while  I  was  wholly  occupied  with 
my  geology.  I  saw  him  frequently  looking  at  his  watch,  and 
''often  kneeling  down,  like  "Fine-ear"  in  the  fairy  tale,  so  as  to 
place  his  ear  in  contact  with  the  iron  rails  to  ascertain  whether 
a  passenger  or  luggage-train  wrere  within  a  mile  or  two.  We 
went  by  Parramore's  Hill,  where  the  sandstone  rocks  detained 
me  some  time,  and,  at  the  ninety-fifth  mile  station  from  Savan 
nah,  I  collected  fossils,  consisting  of  marine  shells  and  corals. 
These  were  silicified  in  the  burr-stone,  of  which  mill-stones  are 
manufactured.  Near  Sandersville  I  saw  a  limestone  from  which 
Eocene  shells  and  corals  are  procured,  as  well  as  the  teeth  of 
sharks  and  the  bones  of  the  huge  extinct  cetacean  called  Zeug- 
lodon.  Here  I  had  ample  opportunities  of  confirming  the  opin 
ion  I  had  previously  announced  as  the  result  of  my  labors  in 
1842,  that  this  burr-stone,  with  its  red,  yellow,  and  white  sands, 
and  its  associated  porcelain  clays  or  kaolin,  constitutes  one  of  the 
members  of  the  Eocene  group,  overlying  the  great  body  of  cal 
careous  rock,  once  supposed  by  some  to  be  cretaceous,  but  which 
really  belongs  to  the  same  tertiary  period.^  Although  the  sum 
mit  level  of  the  railway  attains  an  elevation  of  about  500  feet, 
descending  afterward  somewhat  abruptly  to  Macon,  which  is 
only  300  feet  above  the  sea,  it  is  surprising  how  we  stole  imper 
ceptibly  up  this  ascent,  as  if  on  a  perfectly  level  plain,  every 
*  See  Quarterly  Journ.  of  Geol.  Society,  1845,  p.  563. 


CHAP.  XX.]     NEGROES  IN  UPPER  COUNTRY.  19 

where  covered  with  wood,  following  chiefly  the  swampy  valley 
of  the  Ogeechee  River,  in  such  a  manner  as  to  miss  seeing  all 
the  leading  features  in  the  physical  geography  of  the  country. 
Had  I  not,  when  at  Hopeton,  seen  good  examples  of  that  suc 
cession  of  steps,  or  abrupt  escarpments,  by  which  a  traveler  in 
passing  from  the  sea-coast  to  the  granite  region  ascends  from  one 
great  terrace  to  another,  I  should  have  doubted  the  accuracy  of 
Bartram's  description.* 

I  had  many  opportunities,  during  this  excursion,  of  satisfying 
myself  of  the  fact  for  which  I  had  been  prepared  by  the  plant 
ers  "  on  the  sea-board,"  that  the  intelligence  of  the  colored  race 
increased  in  the  interior  and  upland  country  in  proportion  as 
they  have  more  intercourse  with  the  whites.  Many  of  them 
were  very  inquisitive  to  know  my  opinion  as  to  the  manner  in 
which  marine  shells,  sharks'  teeth,  sea-urchins,  and  corals  could 
have  been  buried  in  the  earth  so  far  from  the  sea  and  at  such  a 
height.  The  deluge  had  occurred  to  them  as  a  cause,  but  they 
were  not  satisfied  with  it,  observing  that  they  procured  these 
remains  not  merely  near  the  surface,  but  from  the  bottom  of 
deep  wells,  and  that  others  were  in  flint  stones.  In  some 
places,  when  I  left  the  railway  and  hired  a  gig  to  visit  planta 
tions  far  from  the  main  road,  the  proprietor  would  tell  me  he 
was  unable  to  answer  my  questions,  his  well  having  been  sunk 
ten  or  twelve  years  ago.  In  that  period  the  property  had 
changed  hands  two  or  three  times,  the  former  owners  having 
settled  farther  south  or  southwest  ;  but  the  estate  had  remained 
under  the  management  of  the  same  head  negro,  to  whom  I  was 
accordingly  referred.  This  personage,  conscious  of  his  import 
ance,  would  begin  by  enlarging,  with  much  self-complacency,  on 
the  ignorance  of  his  master,  who  had  been  too  short  a  time  in 
those  parts  to  understand  any  thing  I  wished  to  know.  When 
at  length  he  condescended  to  come  to  the  point,  he  could  usually 
give  me  a  clear  account  of  the  layers  of  sand,  clay,  and  limestone 
they  had  passed  through,  and  of  fishes'  teeth  they  had  found, 
some  of  which  had  occasionally  been  preserved.  In  proportion 
as  these  colored  people  fill  places  of  trust,  they  are  involuntarily 
treated  more  as  equals  by  the  whites.  The  prejudices  which 
#  Ante,  vol.  i.  p.  257. 


20  NEGROES  IN  UPPER  COUNTRY.  [CHAP.  XX 

keep  the  races  asunder  would  rapidly  diminish,  were  they  no1 
studiously  kept  up  by  artificial  barriers,  unjust  laws,  and  the  re 
action  against  foreign  interference.  In  one  of  the  small  farms, 
where  I  passed  the  night,  I  was  struck  with  the  good  manners 
and  pleasant  expression  of  countenance  of  a  young  woman  of 
color,  who  had  no  dash  of  white  blood  in  her  veins.  She  man 
aged  nearly  all  the  domestic  affairs  of  the  house,  the  white  chil 
dren  among  the  rest,  and,  when  next  day  I  learnt  her  age,  from 
the  proprietor,  I  expressed  surprise  that  she  had  never  married. 
"  She  has  had  many  offers,"  said  he,  "  but  has  declined  all,  for 
they  were  quite  unworthy  of  her, — rude  and  uncultivated  coun 
try  people.  I  do  not  see  how  she  is  to  make  a  suitable  match 
here,  though  she  might  easily  do  so  in  a  large  town  like  Savan 
nah."  He  spoke  of  her  just  as  he  might  have  done  of  a  white 
free  maid-servant. 

If  inter-marriages  between  the  colored  and  white  races  were 
not  illegal  here,  how  can  we  doubt  that  as  Englishwomen  some 
times  marry  black  servants  in  Great  Britain,  others,  who  came 
out  here  as  poor  emigrants,  would  gladly  accept  an  offer  from  a 
well-conducted  black  artisan  or  steward  of  an  estate,  a  man  of 
intelligence  and  sober  habits,  preferable  in  so  many  respects  to 
the  drunken  and  illiterate  Irish  settlers,  who  are  now  so  unduly 
raised  above  them  by  the  prejudices  of  race  ! 

In  one  family,  I  found  that  there  were  six  white  children  and 
six  blacks,  of  about  the  same  age,  and  the  negroes  had  been  taught 
to  read  by  their  companions,  the  owner  winking  at  this  illegal 
proceeding,  and  seeming  to  think  that  such  an  acquisition  would 
rather  enhance  the  value  of  his  slaves  than  otherwise.  Unfor 
tunately,  the  whites,  in  return,  often  learn  from  the  negroes  to 
speak  broken  English,  and,  in  spite  of  losing  much  time  in  un 
learning  ungrammatical  phrases,  well-educated  people  retain  some 
of  them  all  their  lives. 

As  I  stopped  every  evening  at  the  point  where  my  geological 
work  for  the  day  happened  to  end,  I  had  sometimes  to  put  up 
with  rough  quarters  in  the  pine-barrens.  It  was  cold,  and  none 
of  my  hosts  grudged  a  good  fire,  for  large  logs  of  blazing  pine- 
wood  were  freely  heaped  up  on  the  hearth,  but  the  windows  and 
doors  were  kept  wide  open.  One  morning,  I  was  at  breakfast 


CHAP.  XX.]  INDIFFERENCE  TO  COLD.  21 

with  a  large  family,  at  sunrise,  when,  the  frost  was  so  hard,  that 
every  pool  of  water  in  the  road  was  incrusted  with  ice.  In  the 
course  of  the  winter,  some  ponds,  they  said,  had  borne  the  weight 
of  a  man  and  horse,  and  there  had  been  a  coroner's  inquest  on 
the  body  of  a  man,  lately  found  dead  on  the  road,  where  the 
question  had  been  raised  whether  he  had  been  murdered  or  frozen 
to  death.  They  had  placed  me  in  a  thorough  draught,  and,  un 
able  to  bear  the  cold  any  longer,  I  asked  leave  to  close  the  win 
dow.  My  hostess  observed,  that  "  I  might  do  so,  if  I  preferred 
sitting  in  the  dark."  On  looking  up,  I  discovered  that  there  was 
no  glass  in  the  windows,  and  that  they  were  furnished  with  large 
shutters  only.  For  my  own  part,  I  would  willingly  have  been 
content  with  the  light  which  the  pine-wood  gave  us,  but  seeing 
the  women  and  girls,  with  bare  necks  and  light  clothing,  perfectly 
indifferent  to  the  cold,  I  merely  asked  permission  to  put  on  my 
great  coat  and  hat.  These  Georgians  seemed  to  me,  after  their 
long  summer,  to  be  as  insensible  to  the  frost  as  some  Englishmen 
the  first  winter  after  their  return  from  India,  who  come  back 
charged,  as  it  were,  with  a  superabundant  store  of  caloric,  and 
take  time,  like  a  bar  of  iron  out  of  a  furnace,  to  part  with  their 
heat. 

A  farmer  near  Parramore's  Hill,  thinking  I  had  come  to  settle 
there,  offered  to  sell  me  some  land  at  the  rate  of  two  dollars  an 
acre.  It  was  well  timbered,  and  I  found  that  the  wood  growing 
on  this  sandy  soil  is  often  worth  more  than  the  ground  which  it 
covers.  Another  resident  in  the  same  district,  told  me  he  had 
bought  his  farm  at  two  and  a  half  dollars  (or  about  half-a-guinea) 
an  acre,  and  thought  it  dear,  and  would  have  gone  off  to  Texas, 
if  he  were  not  expecting  to  reap  a  rich  harvest  from  a  thriving 
plantation  of  peach  trees  and  nectarines,  just  coming  into  full 
bearing.  A  market  for  such  fruit  had  recently  been  opened  by 
the  new  railway,  from  Macon  to  Savannah.  He  complained  of 
want  of  elbow-room,  although  I  found  that  his  nearest  neighbor 
was  six  or  seven  miles  distant ;  but,  he  observed,  that  having  a 
large  family  of  children,  he  wished  to  lay  out  his  capital  in  the 
purchase  of  a  wider  extent  of  land  in  Texas,  and  so  be  the  better 
able  to  provide  for  them. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

Indian  Mounds  and  Block-house  at  Macon,  Georgia. — Fashionists. — Fune 
ral  of  Northern  Man. — Geology  and  silicified  Corals  and  Shells. — Stage 
traveling  to  Milledgeville. — Negro  Children. — Home-made  Soap. — De 
composition  of  Gneiss. — Deep  Ravines  recently  excavated  after  clearing 
of  Forest. — Man  shot  in  a  Brawl. — Disappointed  Place-Hunter. — Lynch 
Law  in  Florida. — Repeal  of  English  Corn-Laws. — War  Spirit  abating. 

Jan.  15,  1846. — WHEN  I  was  within  twenty  miles  of  Macon, 
I  left  the  hand-car  and  entered  a  railway-train,  which  carried  me 
in  one  hour  into  the  town.  About  a  mile  south  of  the  place  we 
passed  the  base  of  two  conical  Indian  mounds,  the  finest  monu 
ments  of  the  kind  I  had  ever  seen.  The  first  appearance  of  a 
large-steam  vessel  ascending  one  of  the  western  tributaries  of  the 
Mississippi,  before  a  single  Indian  has  been  dispossessed  of  his 
hunting  grounds,  or  a  single  tree  of  the  native  forest  has  been 
felled,  scarcely  affords  a  more  striking  picture  of  a  wilderness  in 
vaded  by  the  arts  of  civilized  life,  than  Macon,  in  Georgia,  re 
sounding  to  the  sound  of  a  locomotive  engine.  On  entering1  the 
town,  my  eye  was  caught  by  a  striking  object,  a  wooden  edifice 
of  very  peculiar  structure  and  picturesque  form,  crowning  one  of 
the  hills  in  the  suburbs.  This,  I  was  told,  on  inquiry,  was  a 
block-house,  actually  in  use  against  the  Indians  only  twenty-five 
years  ago,  before  any  habitations  of  the  white  men  were  to  be 
seen  in  the  forest  here.  It  was  precisely  one  of  those  wooden 
forts  so  faithfully  described  by  Cooper  in  the  "  Path-finder." 
After  the  mind  has  become  interested  with  such  antiquities,  it  is 
carried  back  the  next  moment  to  the  modern  state  of  things  by 
an  extraordinary  revulsion,  when  a  fellow-passenger,  proud  of  the 
sudden  growth  of  his  adopted  city,  tells  you  that  another  large 
building,  also  conspicuous  on  a  height,  is  a  female  seminary  lately 
established  by  the  Methodists,  "  where  all  the  young  ladies  take 
degrees  ;"  and  then,  as  you  pace  the  streets  with  your  baggage 
to  the  hotel,  another  says  to  you,  "  There  go  two  of  our  fashion- 


CHAP.  XXL]    FUNERAL  OF  NORTHERN  MAN.  23 

ists,"  pointing  to  two  gayly-dressed  ladies,  in  the  latest  Parisian 
costume. 

I  had  seen,  in  the  pale  countenances  of  the  whites  in  the  pine- 
woods  I  had  lately  traveled  through,  the  signs  of  much  fever  and 
ague  prevalent  in  the  hot  season  in  Georgia,  but  at  Macon  we 
heard  chiefly  of  consumptive  patients,  who  have  fled  from  the 
northern  states  in  the  hope  of  escaping  the  cold  of  winter.  The 
frost,  this  year,  has  tried  them  severely  in  the  south.  Two  days 
before  I  reached  Macon,  a  young  northern  man  had  died  in  the 
hotel  where  my  wife  was  staying,  a  melancholy  event,  as  none 
of  his  friends  or  relatives  were  near  him.  Lucy,  the  chamber 
maid  of  the  hotel,  an  intelligent  bright  mulatto,  from  Maryland, 
who  expressed  herself  as  well  as  any  white  woman,  carne  to  tell 
my  wife  that  the  other  ladies  of  the  house  were  to  be  present  at 
the  funeral,  and  invited  her  to  attend.  She  found  the  two 
drawing-rooms  thrown  into  one,  and  the  coffin  placed  on  a  table 
between  the  folding  doors,  covered  with  a  white  cloth.  There 
were  twenty  or  thirty  gentlemen  on  the  one  side,  and  nearly  as 
many  ladies  and  children  on  the  other,  none  of  them  in  mourn 
ing.  The  Episcopal  clergyman  who  officiated,  before  reading 
the  usual  burial  service,  delivered  a  short  and  touching  address, 
alluding  to  the  stranger  cut  off  in  his  youth,  far  from  his  kindred, 
and  exhorting  his  hearers  not  to  defer  the  hour  of  repentance  to 
a  death-bed,  when  their  reason  might  be  impaired  or  taken  from 
them.  After  the  prayers,  six  of  the  gentlemen  came  forward  to 
carry  the  coffin  down  stairs,  to  put  it  into  a  small  hearse  drawn 
by  a  single  horse,  and  three  carriages  followed  with  as  many  as 
they  could  hold,  to  the  cemetery  of  Rose  Hill.  This  burial- 
ground  is  in  a  beautiful  situation  on  a  wooded  hill,  near  the  banks 
of  the  Ocmulgee  arid  overlooking  the  Falls. 

These  falls,  like  so  many  of  those  on  the  rivers  east  of  the  Alle- 
ghanies,  are  situated  on  the  line  of  junction  of  the  granitic  and 
tertiary  regions.^  The  same  junction  may  also  be  seen  at  the 
bridge  over  the  Ocmulgee,  at  Macon,  the  red  loam  of  the  tertiary 
formation  resting  there  on  mica  schist.  At  the  distance  of  one 
mile  southeast  of  the  town,  a  railway  cutting  has  exposed  a  series 
*  See  "Travels  in  N.  America,"  vol.  i.  p.  132.  -jrf 


24  SILICIFIED  SHELLS  AND  CORAL.         [CHAP.  XXI. 

of  beds  of  yellow  and  red  clay,  with  accompanying-  sands  of  ter 
tiary  formation,  and,  at  the  depth  of  forty  feet,  I  observed  a  large 
fossil  tree  converted  into  lignite,  the  concentric  rings  of  annual 
growth  being  visible.  Receding  from  the  granitic  rocks,  six  or 
eight  miles  still  farther  to  the  southeast,  I  found  at  Brown  Mount 
ain,  a  bluff  on  the  Ocmulgee  River,  and  at  other  places  in  the 
neighborhood,  a  great  many  siliceous  casts  of  fossil  shells  and 
corals,  and  among  others  a  large  nautilus,  the  whole  indicating 
that  these  beds  of  cherty  sandstone  and  impure  limestone  belong 
to  the  Eocene  period. 

As  there  is  much  kaolin  in  this  series  of  chert  and  burr-stone 
strata,  I  have  little  doubt  that  the  petrifaction  of  fossil- wood,  and 
of  shells  and  corals,  has  taken  place  in  consequence  of  the  decom 
position  of  the  imbedded  felspathic  rocks  and  crystals  of  felspar, 
taking  place  simultaneously  with  the  putrefaction  of  the  organic 
bodies.  The  silex,  just  set  free  from  its  chemical  combination  in 
the  felspar,  would  replace  each  organic  particle  as  fast  as  it  de 
cayed  or  was  resolved  into  its  elements. 

From  Macon  I  went  to  Milledgeville,  twenty-five  miles  to  the 
northeast,  the  capital  of  Georgia.  Instead  of  taking  the  direct 
road,  we  made  a  detour,  going  the  first  thirty  miles  on  the  Sa 
vannah  railway,  to  a  station  called  Gordon,  where  we  found  a 
stage-coach  ready  to  drag  us  through  the  deep  sands  of  the  pine- 
barrens,  or  to  jolt  us  over  corduroy  roads  in  the  swamps.  As 
we  were  traversing  one  of  the  latter,  at  the  rate  of  half  a  mile 
an  hour,  I  began  to  contrast  the  speed  of  the  new  railway  with 
stage-traveling.  Our  driver  maintained  that  he  could  go  as  fast 
as  the  cars.  "  How  do  you  make  that  out  ?"  said  I.  "  Put  a 
locomotive,"  he  replied,  "  on  this  swamp,  and.  see  which  will  get 
on  best.  The  most  you  can  say  is,  that  each  kind  of  vehicle  runs 
fastest  on  its  own  line  of  road." 

We  were  passing  some  cottages  on  the  way-side,  when  a  group 
of  children  rushed  out,  half  of  them  white  and  half  negro,  shout 
ing  at  the  full  stretch  of  their  lungs,  and  making  the  driver  fear 
that  his  horses  would  be  scared.  They  were  not  only  like  chil 
dren  in  other  parts  of  the  world,  in  their  love  of  noise  and  mis 
chief,  but  were  evidently  all  associating  on  terms  of  equality,  and 


CHAP.  XXI.]  THE  "EXECUTIVE  MANSION."  25 

had  not  yet  found  out  that  they  belonged  to  a  different  caste  in. 
society.  One  of  our  passengers  was  a  jet  black  youth,  about  ten 
years  old,  who  got  down  at  a  lone  house  in  the  woods,  from  the 
door  of  which  two  mulatto  boys  a  year  or  two  younger  ran  out. 
There  was  much  embracing  and  kissing,  and  mutual  caressing, 
with  more  warmth  of  manner  than  is  usually  shown  by  the 
whites.  We  were  glad  to  see  the  white  mistress  of  the  house, 
probably  the  owner  of  them  and  their  parents,  looking  on  with 
evident  pleasure  and  interest  at  the  scene. 

Milledgeville,  a  mere  village,  though  the  capital  of  the  state, 
is  provided  with  four  neat  and  substantial  wooden  churches,  clus 
tered  together,  the  Presbyterian,  Baptist,  Methodist,  and  Episco 
palian.  In  the  latter  we  found  there  was  to  be  no  service,  as 
the  clergyman  had  been  recently  "  called"  to  a  larger  church, 
newly  built,  at  Savannah.  The  Presbyterian  minister  was  from 
New  England,  and  an  excellent  preacher.  He  exhorted  his  con 
gregation  to  take  the  same  view  of  their  short  sojourn  on  this 
globe,  which  the  emigrant  takes  of  his  journey  to  the  far  west, 
bearing  patiently  great  hardships  and  privations,  because,  how 
ever  severe  at  the  time,  he  knows  they  will  soon  end,  and  prove 
momentary  in  their  duration,  in  comparison  with  the  longer  period 
which  he  hopes  to  spend  in  a  happier  land. 

At  our  hotel  apologies  were  made  to  us  by  a  neatly-dressed 
colored  maid,  for  the  disorderly  state  of  our  room,  the  two  beds 
having  been  recently  occupied  by  four  members  of  the  Legisla 
ture,  who,  according  to  her,  "  had  turned  the  room  into  a  hog 
pen,  by  smoking  and  spilling  their  brandy  and  wine  about  the 
floor." 

While  I  was  geologizing  in  the  suburbs,  the  Governor's  lady 
called  on  my  wife  and  took  her  to  her  residence,  called  here  the 
"  Executive  Mansion,"  as  appears  by  the  inscription  over  the 
door.  It  contained  some  handsome  reception-rooms  newly  fur 
nished  by  the  last  governor,  but  the  white  ground  of  a  beautiful 
Axminster  carpet  had  been  soiled  and  much  damaged  the  first 
evening  after  it  was  put  down,  at  a  levee,  attended  by  several 
hundred  men,  each  walking  in  after  a  heavy  rain  with  his  shoes 
covered  with  mud. 
VOL.  IT. — B 


26  HOME-MADE  SOAP.  [CHAP.  XXI. 

When  the  governor's  wife  paid  us  a  second  visit,  our  landlady 
made  herself  one  of  the  party  just  as  if  we  were  all  visitors  at 
her  house.  She  was  very  much  amused  at  my  wife's  muff,  hav 
ing  never  seen  one  since  she  was  a  girl,  half  a  century  before,  at 
Baltimore,  yet  the  weather  was  now  cold  enough  to  make  such 
an  article  of  dress  most  comfortable.  Among  other  inquiries,  she 
said  to  my  wife,  "  Do  tell  me  how  you  make  your  soap  in  En 
gland."  Great  was  her  surprise  to  hear  that  ladies  in  that  coun 
try  were  in  the  habit  of  buying  the  article  in  shops,  and  would 
be  much  puzzled  if  called  upon  to  manufacture  it  for  themselves. 
As  it  was  evident  she  had  never  studied  Adam  Smith  on  the  Di 
vision  of  Labor,  she  looked  upon  this  fine-lady  system  of  purchas 
ing  every  article  at  retail  stores,  as  very  extravagant.  "  That's- 
the  way  they  do  in  the  north,"  said  she,  "  though  I  never  could 
understand  where  all  their  money  comes  from."  She  then  ex 
plained  how  economically  she  was  able  to  supply  herself  with 
soap.  "  First,  there  is  the  wood,  which  costs  nothing  but  the 
trouble  of  felling  the  trees  ;  and,  after  it  has  served  for  fuel,  it 
yields  the  ashes,  from  which  we  get  the  potash.  This  is  mixed 
with  the  fat  of  sixty  hogs,  which  costs  nothing,  for  what  else 
could  I  do  with  all  this  fat  at  killing  time  ?  As  for  the  labor,  it 
is  all  done  by  my  own  people.  I  have  nine  maids,  and  they 
make  almost  every  thing  in  the  house,  even  to  the  caps  I  wear." 
Touching  the  soap,  she  observed,  we  must  be  careful  to  select  the 
ashes  of  the  oak,  hickory,  ash,  and  other  hard  wood,  for  the  pines 
yield  no  potash  ;  a  remark  which  led  me  to  speculate  on  the  lux 
uriant  growth  of  the  long-leaved  pines  in  the  purely  siliceous  ter 
tiary  soils,  from  which  it  would  have  been  difficult  to  conceive 
how  the  roots  of  the  trees  could  extract  any  alkaline  matter, 
whereas  the  soil  of  the  "  hickory  grounds"  is  derived  from  the 
disintegration  of  granitic  rocks,  which  are  very  felspathic  here, 
and  are  decomposing  in  situ. 

Having  occasion  to  hire  a  horse,  I  found  that  the  proprietor 
of  the  livery  stables  was  a  colored  man,  who  came  himself  to 
bargain  about  the  price,  which  was  high  compared  to  that  asked 
in  the  north. 

The  site  of  Milledgeville  is  577  feet  above  the  level  of  the 


CHAP.  XXI. J        BLOCKS  OF  GRANITE  AND  GNEISS.  27 

sea,  and,  like  Macon,  it  stands  on  the  boundary  of  the  tertiary 
and  granitic  region.  Dr.  J.  R.  Cotting,  who  had  been  employ 
ed  by  the  state  to  make  a  geological  survey  of  part  of  Georgia, 
showed  me  in  the  State  House  some  fossils  collected  by  him,  and 
he  accompanied  me  in  an  excursion  into  the  neighborhood  of  the 
capital.  It  is  well  worthy  of  remark,  that  here,  as  every  where 
in  Georgia  and  Alabama,  there  are  loose  blocks  of  granite  and 
gneiss  strewed  over  the  granitic  area ;  but  no  fragments  of  them 
are  ever  seen  to  cross  the  boundary  into  the  area  composed  of  the 
tertiary  strata,  where  small  pebbles  only  are  seen  washed  out  of 
the  sands.  Farther  to  the  north,  in  Massachusetts,  for  example, 
and  the  island  of  Martha's  Vineyard,  we  see  enormous  erratics  of 
granite,  twenty-five  and  thirty  feet  in  diameter,  which  must  have 
come  from  the  north,  probably  from  the  mountains  of  New  Hamp 
shire,  resting  on  the  tertiary  clays  and  rocks  ;*  and  in  Long 
Island  (New  York),  a  variety  of  transported  blocks  repose  upon, 
or  are  interstratified  with  very  modern  deposits.  In  the  south 
ern  states  the  same  causes  have  not  been  in  action,  and  if  we 
suppose  icebergs  to  have  been  the  transporting  power  in  the  north, 
it  seems  natural  that  their  action  should  not  have  extended  to 
the  southern  states,  so  as  to  carry  fragments  of  crystalline  rocks 
out  of  the  granitic  region.  Yet  it  is  striking  around  Milledge- 
ville,  to  see  so  many  large  detached  and  rounded  boulders  of 
granite  lying  on  the  surface  of  the  soil,  and  all  strictly  confined 
within  the  limits  of  the  granitic  region.  One  of  these,  on  the 
slope  of  a  hill  three  miles  from  the  town,  resting  on  gneiss,  meas 
ured  twelve  feet  in  its  longest  diameter,  and  was  four  feet  high. 
I  presume  that  these  boulders  are  nearly  in  situ  ;  they  may  have 
constituted  "  tors"  of  granite,  like  those  in  Cornwall,  fragments 
of  masses,  once  more  extensive,  left  by  denudation  at  a  period 
when  the  country  was  rising  out  of  the  sea,  and  fragments  may 
have  been  occasionally  thrown  down  by  the  waves,  and  swept 
to  a  small  distance  from  their  original  sites.  The  latitude  of 
Milledgeville  is  32°  20'  north,  or  considerably  to  the  south  of 
the  most  southern  limits  to  which  the  northern  drift  with  its 
erratics  has  hitherto  been  traced  in  the  United  States. 
*  Travels  in  N.  America,  vol.  i.  p.  259,  chap.  xii. 


23  MODERN  RAVINES.  [CHAP.  XXI. 

Another  most  singular  phenomenon  in  the  environs  of  Milledge- 
ville  is  the  depth  to  which  the  gneiss  and  mica  schist  have  de 
composed  iii  situ.  Some  very  instructive  sections  of  the  disinte 
grated  rocks  have  been  laid  open  in  the  precipices  of  recently 
formed  ravines.  Were  it  not  that  the  original  intersecting  veins 
of  white  quartz  remain  unaltered  to  show  that  the  layers  of  sand, 
clay,  and  loam  are  mere  laminae  of  gneiss  and  mica  schist,  re 
solved  into  their  elements,  a  geologist  would  suppose  that  they 
were  ordinary  alternations  of  sandy  arid  clayey  beds  with  occa 
sional  cross  stratification,  the  whole  just  in  the  state  in  which 
they  were  first  deposited.  Now  and  then,  as  if  to  confirm  the 
deception,  a  large  crystal  of  felspar,  eight  or  ten  inches  long,  is 
seen  to  retain  its  angles,  although  converted  into  kaolin.  Simi 
lar  crystals,  almost  as  perfect,  may  be  seen  washed  into  the  ter 
tiary  strata  south  of  the  granitic  region,  where  white  porcelain 
clays,  quartzose  gravel,  sand,  and  micaceous  loam  are  found,  evi 
dently  derived  from  the  waste  of  decomposed  crystalline  rocks.  I 
am  not  surprised,  therefore,  that  some  geologists  should  have  con 
founded  the  ancient  gneiss  of  this  district,  thus  decomposed  in 
situ,  with  the  tertiary  deposits.  Their  close  resemblance  con 
firms  me  in  the  opinion,  that  the  arrangement  of  the  gneiss  and 
mica  schist  in  beds  with  subordinate  layers,  both  horizontal  and 
oblique,  was  originally  determined,  in  most  cases  at  least,  by 
aqueous  deposition,  although  often  modified  by  subsequent  crys 
talline  action. 

The  surprising  depth  of  some  of  the  modem  ravines,  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Milledgeville,  suggests  matter  of  curious  specula 
tion.  At  the  distance  of  three  miles  and  a  half  due  west  of  the 
town,  on  the  direct  road  to  Macon,  on  the  farm  of  Pomona,  is 
the  ravine  represented  in  the  annexed  wood-cut  (p.  29).  Twenty 
years  ago  it  had  no  existence  ;  but  when  the  trees  of  the  forest 
were  cut  down,  cracks  three  feet  deep  were  caused  by  the  sun's 
heat  in  the  clay  ;  and,  during  the  rains,  a  sudden  rush  of  water 
through  these  cracks,  caused  them  to  deepen  at  their  lower  ex 
tremities,  from  whence  the  excavating  power  worked  backward, 
till,  in  the  course  of  twenty  years,  a  chasm,  measuring  no  less 
than  55  feet  in  depth,  300  yards  in  length,  and  varying  in  width 


CHAP.  XXL]          RAVINE  NEAR  MILLEDGEVTLLE. 


Fig-  7. 


Ravine  on  the  Farm  of  Pomona,  near  Milledgeville,  Georgia.    January,  184G. 
Excavated  in  the  last  twenty  years,  55  feet  deep,  and  180  feet  broad. 


30  MODERN  RAVINES.  [CHAP.  XXL 

from  20  to  180  feet  was  the  result.  (See  fig.  7,  p.  29.)  The 
high  road  has  been  several  times  turned  to  avoid  this  cavity,  the 
enlargement  of  which  is  still  proceeding,  and  the  old  line  of  road 
may  be  seen  to  have  held  its  course  directly  over  what  is  now 
the  widest  part  of  the  ravine.  In  the  perpendicular  walls  of  this 
great  chasm  appear  beds  of  clay  and  sand,  red,  white,  yellow, 
and  green,  produced  by  the  decomposition  in  situ  of  hornbleridic 
gneiss,  with  layers  and  veins  of  quartz,  as  before-mentioned,  and 
of  a  rock  consisting  of  quartz  and  felspar,  which  remain  entire  to 
prove  that  the  whole  mass  was  once  crystalline. 

In  another  place  I  saw  a  bridge  thrown  over  a  recently  formed 
gulley,  and  here,  as  in  Alabama,  the  new  system  of  valleys  and 
of  drainage,  attendant  on  the  clearing  away  of  the  woods,  is  a 
source  of  serious  inconvenience  and  loss. 

I  infer,  from  the  rapidity  of  the  denudation  caused  here  by 
running  water,  after  the  clearing  or  removal  of  wood,  that  this 
country  has  been  always  covered  with  a  dense  forest,  from  the 
remote  time  when  it  first  emerged  from  the  sea.  However  long 
may  have  been  the  period  of  upheaval  required  to  raise  the  ma 
rine  tertiary  strata  to  the  height  of  more  than  600  feet,  we  rnay 
conclude  that  the  surface  has  been  protected  by  more  than  a  mere 
covering  of  herbage  from  the  effects  of  the  sudden  flowing  off  of 
the  rain  water. 

I  know  it  may  be  contended  that,  when  the  granite  and  gneiss 
first  rose  as  islands  out  of  the  sea,  they  may  have  consisted  en 
tirely  of  hard  rock,  which  resisted  denudation,  and  therefore  that 
we  can  only  affirm  that  the  forest  has  been  continuous  from  the 
time  of  the  decomposition  and  softening  of  the  upper  portion  of 
these  rocks.  But  I  may  reply,  that  similar  effects  are  observable, 
even  on  a  grander  scale,  in  recently  excavated  ravines  seventy  or 
eighty  feet  deep,  in  some  newly  cleared  parts  of  the  tertiary  re 
gions  of  Alabama,  as  in  Clarke  County,  for  example,  and  also  in 
some  of  the  cretaceous  strata  of  loose  gravel,  sand,  and  clay,  in 
the  same  state  at  Tuscaloosa.  These  are  at  a  much  greater 
height  above  the  sea,  and  must,  from  the  first,  have  been  as  de 
structible  as  they  are  now. 

We  returned  to  Macon  by  our  former  route,  through  the  pine 


CHAP.  XXT.]  DISAPPOINTED  PLACE-HUNTER.  31 

woods,  and  when  we  stopped  to  change  horses,  a  lady,  who  was 
left  for  a  time  alone  in  the  coach  with  my  wife,  informed  her, 
that  a  young  man  who  had  been  sitting  opposite  to  them,  had, 
the  day  before,  shot  an  Irishman  in  a  tavern,  and  was  flying 
from  justice.  A  few  days  later  we  learnt  that  the  wounded 
man  had  not  died,  but  as  it  was  a  Penitentiary  offense,  it  was 
prudent  for  the  culprit  to  keep  out  of  the  way  for  a  time.  On 
hearing  this,  I  asked  one  of  my  companions  how  it  was  possible, 
when  such  affairs  were  occurring,  and  the  police  was  so  feeble, 
we  could  travel  night  and  day,  and  feel  secure  from  personal 
violence.  {i  There  is  no  danger  here,"  he  said,  "  of  robbery,  as 
in  Europe,  for  we  have  none  who  are  poor,  or  rendered  vicious 
and  desperate  by  want.  No  murders  are  committed  here  except 
in  personal  quarrels,  and  are  almost  always  the  act  of  restless 
and  unquiet  spirits,  who  seek  excitement  in  gambling  and  drink. 
The  wars  in  Texas  relieved  us  of  many  of  these  dare-devils." 

One  of  our  fellow-travelers  seemed  to  be  a  disappointed  place- 
hunter,  who  had  been  lobbying  the  House  of  Legislature  in  vain 
for  the  whole  session.  He  was  taking  his  revenge  by  telling 
many  a  story  against  an  assembly,  which  had  been  so  obtuse  as 
not  to  discover  his  merits.  Twelve  of  them,  he  said,  from  the 
upper  country,  could  not  even  read,  and  one  of  these  happening, 
when  in  the  House,  to  receive  an  invitation  to  the  Governor's 
annual  dinner,  rose,  and,  holding  the  card  in  his  hand,  with  the 
writing  upside  down,  said,  "  Mr.  Speaker,  I  am  determined  to 
oppose  this  resolution."  Another,  when  they  were  debating 
whether  they  should  move  the  Capital,  or  seat  of  legislature, 
from  Milledgeville  to  Macon,  went  out,  and,  on  resuming  his 
seat,  declared  they  were  wasting  their  time,  for  he  had  measured, 
and  made  a  rough  estimate  of  the  weight  of  the  building  (which 
was  of  stone),  and  found,  on  calculation,  that  all  the  oxen  in 
Georgia  could  not  drag  it  a  single  mile  ! 

There  was  much  talk  here  of  a  recent  exhibition  on  the  frori 
tiers  of  Georgia,  of  what  is  commonly  called  Lynch  law,  which 
invalidated  the  assertion  of  my  companion  in  regard  to  the  ab 
sence  of  robbers.  Many  people  having  been  plundered  of  their 
property,  especially  their  negroes,  organized  a  private  association 


32  LYNCH  LAW  IN  FLORIDA.  [CHAP.  XXI. 

for  putting  down  the  thieves,  who  came  from  Florida,  and  hav 
ing  arrested  one  of  them,  named  Yoermans,  they  appointed  a 
committee  of  twelve  to  try  him.  Witnesses  having  been  sworn, 
a  verdict  of  guilty  was  returned,  and  the  punishment  of  death 
decided  upon,  by  a  vote  of  six  to  one.  They  then  crossed  from 
Georgia  into  Florida,  where  the  prisoner  confessed,  under  the 
gallows,  that  he  was  a  murderer  and  robber,  and  called  upon  a 
preacher  of  the  gospel,  three  or  four  of  whom  were  present,  as 
well  as  a  justice  of  the  peace,  to  pray  for  him,  after  which  he 
was  hung. 

I  expressed  my  horror  at  these  transactions,  observing  that 
Florida,  if  in  so  rude  and  barbarous  a  state,  ought  not  to  have 
been  admitted  into  the  Union.  My  companions  agreed  to  this, 
but  said  they  believed  the  man  had  fair  play  on  his  trial,  and 
added,  "  If  you  were  a  settler  there,  and  had  no  other  law  to 
defend  you,  you  would  be  glad  of  the  protection  of  Judge 
Lynch." 

The  news  had  just  reached  Milledgeville  and  Macon  of  the 
English  premier's  speech  in  favor  of  the  free  importation  of 
foreign  corn,  a  subject  discussed  here  with  as  much  interest  as 
if  it  were  a  question  of  domestic  policy.  The  prospect  of  in 
creased  commercial  intercourse  with  England,  is  regarded  by  all 
as  favorable  to  peace,  especially  as  the  western  states,  the  most 
bellicose  in  the  whole  Union,  will  be  the  chief  gainers.  Even 
before  this  intelligence  arrived,  the  tone  of  the  public  mind  was 
beginning  to  grow  somewhat  less  warlike.  The  hero  in  a  new 
cornic  piece,  on  the  stage  at  New  York,  personifies  the  member 
for  Oregon,  and  talks  big  about  "  our  destiny,"  and  "  the  whole 
of  Oregon  or  none."  "We  also  observe  an  extract  from  the 
"  North  American  Review"  going  the  round  of  the  newspapers, 
in  which  the  Oregon  dispute  is  compared  to  Dandie  Dinrnont's 
famous  law-suit  with  Jock  o'Dawston  about  the  marches  of  their 
farms,  and  Counsellor  Pleydell's  advice  to  his  client  is  recom 
mended  for  imitation. 

"  We  should  have  a  war  to-morrow,"  said  a  Whig  politician 
to  me  at  Macon,  "  if  your  democracy  were  as  powerful  as  ours, 
for  the  most  radical  of  your  newspapers  are  the  most  warlike. 


CHAP.  XXL]  WAR  SPIRIT  ABATING.  33 

Your  ministers  seem  more  free  from  anti- American  prejudices 
than  the  ordinary  writers  of  travels,  reviews,  or  newspaper 
articles,  and  they  have  a  great  advantage  over  our  government 
at  Washington.  One  of  our  statesman,  a  late  candidate  for  the 
presidentship,  is  said  to  have  declared,  that  when  so  many  mil 
lions  are  admitted  into  the  cabinet,  it  is  scarcely  possible  to 
manage  a  delicate  point  of  foreign  policy  with  discretion." 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

Macon  to  Columbus  by  Stage. — Rough  Traveling. — Passage  of  Flint  River. 
— Columbus. — Recent  Departure  of  Creek  Indians. — Falls  of  the  Chata- 
hoochie. — Competition  of  Negro  and  White  Mechanics. — Age  of  Pine 
Trees. — Abolitionist  "Wrecker"  in  Railway  Car. — Runaway  Slave. — 
Sale  of  Novels  by  Newsboys. — Character  of  Newspaper  Press. — Geology 
and  Cretaceous  Strata,  Montgomery.  —  Curfew.  —  Sunday  School  for 
Negroes. — Protracted  Meeting. 

Jan.  21,  1846. — HITHERTO  we  had  traveled  from  the  north 
by  railway  or  steam  ship,  but  from  Macon,  on  our  way  south, 
we  were  compelled  to  resort  to  the  stage  coach,  and  started  first 
for  Columbus.  For  the  first  time  we  remarked  that  our  friends, 
on  parting,  wished  us  a  safe  journey,  instead  of  a  pleasant  one, 
as  usual.  There  had  been  continued  rains,  and  the  roads  were 
cut  up  by  wagons  bringing  heavy  bales  of  cotton  to  the  Savannah 
railroad.  We  passed  Knoxville,  a  small  and  neat  town,  and, 
after  dark,  supped  at  a  small  roadside  inn,  on  pork  chops,  waffles, 
and  hominy,  or  porridge  made  of  Indian  meal.  Here  we  were 
told  that  the  stage  of  the  night  before  had  been  water-bound  by 
the  rising  of  the  rivers.  We  went  on,  however,  to  the  great 
Flint  River,  where  the  stage  drove  into  a  large  flat-boat  or  raft. 
The  night  was  mild,  but  dark,  and  the  scene  which  presented 
itself  very  picturesque.  A  great  number  of  negroes  were  stand 
ing  on  both  banks,  chattering  incessantly,  and  holding  in  their 
hands  large  blazing  torches  of  pine-wood,  which  threw  a  red 
light  on  the  trees  around.  The  river  was  much  swollen,  but  we 
crossed  without  impediment.  It  was  the  first  stream  we  had 
come  to  of  those  flowing  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 

Our  coach  was  built  on  a  plan  almost  universal  in  America, 
and  like  those  used  in  some  parts  of  France,  with  three  seats, 
the  middle  one  provided  with  a  broad  leather  strap,  to  lean  back 
upon.  The  best  places  are  given  to  the  ladies,  and  a  husband 
is  seated  next  his  wife.  There  are  no  outside  passengers,  except 


CHAP.  XXIL]  ROUGH  TRAVELING.  35 


occasionally  one  sitting  by  the  driver's  side.  We  were  ofter 
called  upon,  on  a  sudden,  to  throw  our  weight  first  on  the  right, 
and  then  on  the  left  side,  to  balance  the  vehicle  and  prevent  an 
upset,  when  one  wheel  was  sinking  into  a  deep  rut.  Sometimes 
all  the  gentlemen  were  ordered  to  get  out  in  the  dark,  and  walk 
in  the  wet  and  muddy  road.  The  coachman  would  then  whip 
on  his  steeds  over  a  fallen  tree  or  deep  pool,  causing  tremendous 
jolts,  so  that  my  wife  was  thrown  first  against  the  roof,  and  then 
against  the  sides  of  the  lightened  vehicle,  having  almost  reason 
to  envy  those  who  were  merely  splashing  through  the  mud.  To 
sleep  was  impossible,  but  at  length,  soon  after  daybreak,  we  found 
ourselves  entering  the  suburbs  of  Columbus  ;  and  the  first  sight 
we  saw  there  was  a  long  line  of  negroes,  men,  women,  and  boys, 
well  dressed  and  very  merry,  talking  and  laughing,  who  stopped 
to  look  at  our  coach.  On  inquiry,  we  were  told  that  it  was  a 
gang  of  slaves,  probably  from  Virginia,  going  to  the  market  to 
be  sold. 

Columbus,  like  so  many  towns  on  the  borders  of  the  granitic 
and  tertiary  regions,  is  situated  at  the  head  of  the  navigation  of 
a  large  river,  and  the  rapids  of  the  Chatahoochie  are  well  seen 
from  the  bridge  by  which  it  is  here  spanned.  The  vertical  rise 
and  fall  of  this  river,  which  divides  Georgia  from  Alabama, 
amounts  to  no  less  than  sixty  or  seventy  feet  in  the  course  of  the 
year  ;  and  the  geologist  should  visit  the  country  in  November, 
when  the  season  is  healthy  and  the  river  low,  for  then  he  may 
see  exposed  to  view,  not  only  the  horizontal  tertiary  strata,  but 
the  subjacent  cretaceous  deposits,  containing  ammonites,  baculites, 
and  other  characteristic  fossils.  These  organic  remains  are  met 
with  some  miles  below  the  town,  at  a  point  called  "  Snake's 
Shoals  ;"  and  Dr.  Boykin  showed  us  a  collection  of  the  fossils, 
at  his  agreeable  villa  in  the  suburbs.  In  an  excursion  which  I 
made  with  Mr.  Pond  to  the  Upotoy  Creek,  I  ascertained  that 
the  cretaceous  beds  are  overlaid  every  where  by  tertiary  strata, 
containing  fossil  wood  and  marine  shells. 

The  last  detachment  of  Indians,  a  party  of  no  less  than  500, 
quitted  Columbus  only  a  week  ago  for  Arkansas,  a  memorable 
event  in  the  history  of  the  settlement  of  this  region,  and  part 


35  NEGRO  AND  WHITE  MECHANICS.       [CHAP.  XXII. 

of  an  extensive  and  systematic  scheme  steadily  pursued  by  the 
Government,  of  transferring  the  aborigines  from  the  eastern  states 
to  the  far  west. 

Here,  as  at  Milledgeville,  the  clearing  away  of  the  woods, 
where  these  Creek  Indians  once  pursued  their  game,  has  caused 
the  soil,  previously  level  and  unbroken,  to  be  cut  into  by  torrents, 
so  that  deep  gulleys  may  every  where  be  seen  ;  and  I  am  assured 
that  a  large  proportion  of  the  fish,  formerly  so  abundant  in  the 
Chatahoochie,  have  been  stifled  by  the  mud. 

•r  The  water-power  at  the  rapids  has  been  recently  applied  to 
some  newly-erected  cotton  mills,  and  already  an  anti-free-trade 
party  is  beginning  to  be  formed.  The  masters  of  these  factories 
hope,  by  excluding  colored  men — or,  in  other  words,  slaves — 
from  all  participation  in  the  business,  to  render  it  a  genteel 
employment  for  white  operatives  ;  a  measure  which  places  in  a 
strong  light  the  inconsistencies  entailed  upon  a  community  by 
slavery  and  the  antagonism  of  races,  for  there  are  numbers  of 
colored  mechanics  in  all  these  southern  states  very  expert  at 
trades  requiring  much  more  skill  and  knowledge  than  the  func 
tions  of  ordinary  work-people  in  factories.  Several  New  England- 
ers,  indeed,  who  have  come  from  the  north  to  South  Carolina  and 
Georgia,  complain  to  me  that  they  can  not  push  on  their  children 
here,  as  carpenters,  cabinet  makers,  blacksmiths,  and  in  other 
such  crafts,  because  the  planters  bring  up  the  most  intelligent  of 
their  slaves  to  these  occupations.  The  landlord  of  an  inn  con 
fessed  to  me,  that,  being  a  carrier,  he  felt  himself  obliged  to  have 
various  kinds  of  work  done  by  colored  artisans,  because  they  were 
the  slaves  of  planters  who  employed  him  in  his  own  line.  "  They 
interfere,"  said  he,  "  with  the  fair  competition  of  white  mechan 
ics,  by  whom  I  could  have  got  the  work  better  done." 

These  northern  settlers  are  compelled  to  preserve  a  discreet 
silence  about  such  grievances  when  in  the  society  of  southern 
slave-owners,  but  are  open  and  eloquent  in  descanting  upon  them 
to  a  stranger.  They  are  struck  with  the  difficulty  experienced 
in  raising  money  here,  by  small  shares,  for  the  building  of  mills. 
"  Why,"  say  they,  "  should  all  our  cotton  make  so  long  a  journey 
to  the  north,  to  be  manufactured  there,  arid  come  back  to  us  at 


CHAP.  XXII.]  AGE  OF  PINE  TREES.  37 

so  high  a  price  ?  It  is  because  all  spare  cash  is  sunk  here  in 
purchasing  negroes.  In  order  to  get  a  week's  work  done  for  you, 
you  must  buy  a  negro  out  and  out  for  life." 

From  Columbus  we  traveled  fifty-five  miles  west  to  Chehaw, 
to  join  a  railway,  which  was  to  carry  us  on  to  Montgomery. 
The  stage  was  drawn  by  six  horses,  but  as  it  was  daylight  we 
were  not  much  shaken.  We  passed  through  an  undulating 
country,  sometimes  on  the  tertiary  sands  covered  with  pines, 
sometimes  in  swamps  enlivened  by  the  green  palmetto  and  tall 
magnolia,  and  occasionally  crossing  into  the  borders  of  the  grani 
tic  region,  where  there  appeared  immediately  a  mixture  of  oak, 
hickory,  and  pine.  There  was  no  grass  growing  under  the  pine 
trees,  and  the  surface  of  the  ground  was  every  where  strewed 
with  yellow  leaves,  and  the  fallen  needles  of  the  fir  trees.  The 
sound  of  the  wind  in  the  boughs  of  the  long-leaved  pines  always 
reminded  me  of  the  waves  breaking  on  a  distant  sea-shore,  and  it 
was  agreeable  to  hear  it  swelling  gradually,  and  then  dying  away, 
as  the  breeze  rose  and  fell.  Observing  at  Chehaw  a  great  many 
stumps  of  these  firs  in  a  new  clearing,  I  was  curious  to  know 
how  many  years  it  would  take  to  restore  such  a  forest  if  once  de 
stroyed.  The  first  stump  I  examined  measured  two  feet  five 
inches  in  diameter  at  the  height  of  three  feet  from  the  ground, 
and  I  counted  in  it  1 2  0  rings  of  annual  growth  ;  a  second  meas 
ured  less  by  two  inches  in  diameter,  yet  was  260  years  old  ;  a 
third,  at  the  height  of  tAVO  feet  above  the  ground,  although  180 
years  old,  was  only  two  feet  in  diameter  ;  a  fourth,  the  oldest  I 
could  find,  measured,  at  the  height  of  three  feet  above  its  base, 
four  feet,  and  presented  320  rings  of  annual  growth  ;  and  I  could 
liave  counted  a  few  more  had  the  tree  been  cut  down  even  with 
the  soil.  The  height  of  these  trees  varied  from  70  to  120  feet. 
From  the  time  taken  to  acquire  the  above  dimensions,  we  may 
confidently  infer  that  no  such  trees  will  be  seen  by  posterity,  after 
the  clearing  of  the  country,  except  where  they  may  happen  to  be 
protected  for  ornamental  purposes.  I  once  asked  a  surveyor  in 
Scotland  why,  in  planting  woods  with  a  view  to  profit,  the  oak 
was  generally  neglected,  although  I  had  found  many  trunks  of 
very  large  size  buried  in  peat-mosses.  He  asked  if  I  had  ever 


58  RUNAWAY  SLAVE.  [CHAP.  XXII. 

counted  the  rings  of  growth  in  the  buried  trees,  to  ascertain  their 
age,  and  I  told  him  I  had  often  reckoned  up  300,  and  once  up 
ward  of  800  rings  ;  to  which  he  replied,  "  Then  plant  your  shil 
lings  in  the  funds,  and  you  will  see  how  much  faster  they  would 
grow." 

Before  reaching  Chehaw,  we  stopped  to  dine  at  a  small  log- 
house  in  the  woods,  and  had  prepared  our  minds,  from  outward 
appearances,  to  put  up  with  bad  fare  ;  but,  on  entering,  we  saw 
on  the  table  a  wild  turkey  roasted,  venison  steaks,  and  a  part 
ridge-pie,  all  the  product  of  the  neighboring  forest,  besides  a  large 
jug  of  delicious  milk,  a  luxury  not  commonly  met  with  so  far 
south. 

The  railway  cars  between  Chehaw  and  Montgomery  consisted, 
like  those  in  the  north,  of  a  long  apartment,  with  cross  benches 
and  a  middle  passage.  There  were  many  travelers,  and  among 
them  one  rustic,  evidently  in  liquor,  who  put  both  his  feet  on  one 
of  the  cushioned  benches,  and  began  to  sing.  The  conductor 
told  him  to  put  his  feet  down,  and  afterward,  on  his  repeating  the 
offense,  lifted  them  off.  On  his  doing  it  a  third  time,  the  train 
was  ordered  to  stop,  and  the  man  was  told,  in  a  peremptory  tone, 
to  get  out  immediately.  He  was  a  strong-built  laborer,  and 
would  have  been  much  more  than  a  match  for  the  conductor, 
had  he  resisted  ;  but  he  instantly  complied,  knowing,  doubtless, 
that  the  officer's  authority  would  be  backed  by  the  other  passen 
gers,  if  they  were  appealed  to.  We  left  him  seated  on  the 
ground,  many  miles  from  any  habitation,  and  with  no  prospect 
of  another  train  passing  for  many  a  long  hour.  As  we  go  south 
ward,  we  see  more  cases  of  intoxication,  and  hear  more  swearing. 

At  one  of  the  stations  we  saw  a  runaway  slave,  who  had  been 
caught  and  handcuffed  ;  the  first  I  had  fallen  in  with  in  irons  in 
the  course  of  the  present  journey.  On  seeing  him,  a  New  En- 
glander,  who  had  been  with  us  in  the  stage  before  we  reached 
Chehaw,  began  to  hold  forth  on  the  miserable  condition  of  the 
negroes  in  Alabama,  Louisiana,  Mississippi,  and  some  other  states 
which  I  had  not  yet  visited.  For  a  time  I  took  for  granted  all 
he  said  of  the  sufferings  of  the  colored  race  in  those  regions,  the 
cruelty  of  the  overseers,  theijr  opposition  to  the  improvement  and 


CHAP.  XXII.]  ABOLITIONIST  "  WRECKER."  39 

education  of  the  blacks,  and  especially  to  their  conversion  to 
Christianity.  I  began  to  shudder  at  what  I  was  doomed  to  wit 
ness  in  the  course  of  my  further  journeyings  in  the  south  arid 
west.  He  was  very  intelligent,  and  so  well  informed  on  politics 
and  political  economy,  that  at  first  I  thought  myself  fortunate  in 
meeting  with  a  man  so  competent  to  give  me  an  unprejudiced 
opinion  on  matters  of  which  he  had  been  an  eye-witness.  At 
length,  however,  suspecting  a  disposition  to  exaggerate,  and  a 
party-feeling  on  the  subject,  I  gradually  led  him  to  speak  of  dis 
tricts  with  which  I  was  already  familiar,  especially  South  Caro 
lina  and  Georgia.  I  immediately  discovered  that  there  also  he 
had  every  where  seen  the  same  horrors  and  misery.  He  went 
so  far  as  to  declare  that  the  piny  woods  all  around  us  were  full 
of  hundreds  of  runaways,  who  subsisted  on  venison  and  wild 
hogs  ;  assured  me  that  I  had  been  deceived  if  I  imagined  that 
the  colored  men  in  the  upper  country,  where  they  have  mingled 
more  with  the  whites,  were  more  progressive  ;  nor  was  it  true 
that  the  Baptists  and  Methodists  had  been  successful  in  making 
proselytes.  Few  planters,  he  affirmed,  had  any  liking  for  their 
negroes  ;  and,  lastly,  that  a  war  with  England  about  Oregon,  un 
principled  as  would  be  the  measure  on  the  part  of  the  democratic 
faction,  would  have  at  least  its  bright  side,  for  it  might  put  an 
end  to  slavery.  "  How  in  the  world,"  asked  I,  "  could  it  effect 
this  object  ?"  "  England,"  he  replied,  "  would  declare  all  the 
slaves  in  the  south  free,  and  thus  cripple  her  enemy  by  promoting 
a  servile  war.  The  negroes  would  rise,  and  although,  no  doubt, 
there  would  be  a  great  loss  of  life  and  property,  the  south  would 
nevertheless  be  a  gainer  by  ridding  herself  of  this  most  vicious 
and  impoverishing  institution."  This  man  had  talked  to  me  so 
rationally  on  a  variety  of  topics  so  long  as  he  was  restrained  by 
the  company  of  southern  fellow-passengers  from  entering  on  the 
exciting  question  of  slavery,  that  I  now  became  extremely  curious 
to  know  what  business  had  brought  him  to  the  south,  and  made 
him  a  traveler  there  for  several  years.  I  wras  told  by  the  con 
ductor  that  he  was  "  a  wrecker  ;"  and  I  learnt,  in  explanation 
of  the  term,  that  he  was  a  commercial  agent,  and  partner  of  a 
northern  house  which  had  great  connections  in  the  south.  To 


40  NEWS-BOYS.  [CHAP.  XXII. 

him  had  been  assigned  the  unenviable  task,  in  those  times  of 
bankruptcy  and  repudiation  which  followed  the  financial  crisis  of 
1839—40,  of  seeking  out  and  recovering  bad  debts,  or  of  seeing 
what  could  be  saved  out  of  the  wreck  of  insolvent  firms  or  the 
estates  of  bankrupt  planters.  He  had  come,  therefore,  into  con 
tact  with  many  adventurers  who  had  been  overtrading,  and  spec 
ulators  who  had  grown  unscrupulous,  when  tried  by  pecuniary 
difficulties.  Every  year,  on  revisiting  the  free  states,  he  had 
contrasted  their  progress  with  the  condition  of  the  south,  which 
by  comparison  seemed  absolutely  stationary.  His  thoughts  had 
been  perpetually  directed  to  the  economical  and  moral  evils  of 
slavery,  especially  its  injuriousness  to  the  fortunes  and  characters 
of  that  class  of  the  white  aristocracy  with  which  he  had  most  to 
do.  In  short,  he  had  seen  what  was  bad  in  the  system  through 
the  magnifying  and  distorting  medium  of  his  own  pecuniary  losses, 
and  had  imbibed  a  strong  anti-negro  feeling,  which  he  endeavor 
ed  to  conceal  from  himself,  under  the  cloak  of  a  love  of  freedom 
and  progress.  While  he  was  inveighing  against  the  cruelty  of 
slavery,  he  had  evidently  discovered  no  remedy  for  the  mischief 
but  one,  the  hope  of  which  he  confessedly  cherished,  for  he  was 
ready  to  precipitate  measures  which  would  cause  the  Africans  to 
suffer  that  fate  which  the  aboriginal  Indians  have  experienced 
throughout  the  Union. 

When  I  inquired  if,  in  reality,  there  were  hundreds  of  runa 
way  slaves  in  the  woods,  every  one  laughed  at  the  idea.  As  a 
general  rule,  they  said,  the  negroes  are  well  fed,  and,  when  they 
are  so,  will  very  rarely  attempt  to  escape  unless  they  have  com 
mitted  some  crime  :  even  when  some  punishment  is  hanging  over 
them,  they  are  more  afraid  of  hunger  than  of  a  whipping. 

Although  we  had  now  penetrated  into  regions  where  the 
schoolmaster  has  not  been  much  abroad,  we  observe  that  the  rail 
way  cars  are  every  where  attended  by  news-boys,  who,  in  some 
places,  are  carried  on  a  whole  stage,  walking  up  and  down  "  the 
middle  aisle"  of  the  long  car.  Usually,  however,  at  each  station, 
they,  and  others  who  sell  apples  and  biscuits,  may  be  seen  calcu 
lating  the  exact  speed  at  which  it  is  safe  to  jump  off,  and  taking, 
with  the  utmost  coolness,  a  few  cents  in  chansre  a  moment  before 


CHAP.  XXII.]  CRETACEOUS  STRATA.  41 

they  know  that  the  rate  acquired  by  the  train  will  be  dangerous. 
T  never  witnessed  an  accident,  but  as  the  locomotive  usually  runs 
only  fifteen  miles  an  hour,  and  is  some  time  before  it  reaches  half 
that  pace,  the  urchins  are  not  hurried  as  they  would  be  in  En 
gland.  One  of  them  was  calling  out,  in  the  midst  of  the  pine- 
barren  between  Columbus  and  Chehaw,  "  A  novel,  by  Paul  le 
Koch,  the  Bulwer  of  France,  for  twenty-five  cents — all  the  go  ! 
— more  popular  than  the  Wandering  Jew,"  &c.  Newspapers 
for  a  penny  or  two-pence  are  bought  freely  by  the  passengers  ;  and, 
having  purchased  them  at  random  wherever  we  went  in  the 
northern,  middle,  southern,  arid  western  states,  I  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  press  of  the  United  States  is  quite  as  respect 
able  as  our  own.  In  the  present  crisis  the  greater  number  of 
prints  condemn  the  war  party,  expose  their  motives,  and  do  jus 
tice  to  the  equitable  offers  of  the  English  ministry  in  regard  to 
Oregon.  A  large  portion  of  almost  every  paper  is  devoted  to  lit 
erary  extracts,  to  novels,  tales,  travels,  and  often  more  serious 
works.  Some  of  them  are  specially  devoted  to  particular  relig 
ious  sects,  and  nearly  all  of  this  class  are  against  war.  There 
are  also  some  "  temperance,"  and,  in  the  north,  "  anti-slavery" 
papers. 

We  at  length  arrived  at  Montgomery,  on  the  river  Alabama, 
where  I  staid  a  few  days  to  examine  the  geology  of  the  neighbor 
hood.  From  the  high  ground  near  the  town  there  is  a  distant 
view  of  the  hills  of  the  granitic  region  around  Wetumpka.  But 
the  banks  of  the  river  at  Montgomery  are  composed  of  enormous 
beds  of  unconsolidated  gravel,  thirty  feet  thick,  alternating  with 
red  clay  and  sand,  which  I  at  first  supposed  to  be  tertiary,  from 
their  resemblance  to  strata  near  Macon  and  Augusta  in  Georgia. 
The  fossil  shells,  however,  of  the  accompanying  marls  (Inocera- 
mus  and  Rostellaria  arenarum),  soon  convinced  me  that  they 
belonged  to  the  cretaceous  formation.  About  three  miles  south 
of  the  town  there  is  a  broad  zone  of  calcareous  marl,  constituting 
what  is  called  the  prairie,  or  cane-brake  country,  bare  of  natural 
wood,  and  where  there  is  so  great  a  want  of  water,  that  it  was 
at  first  difficult  for  settlers  to  establish  themselves  upon  it,  until, 
by  aid  of  the  Artesian  auger,  they  obtained  an  abundant  supply 


42  CRKTACEOUS  STRATA.— CURFEW.       [CHAP.  XXII. 


from  a  depth  of  300,  and  often  500  feet,  derived  from  the  un 
derlying  gravelly  and  sandy  beds.  Farther  from  the  outcrop  of 
these  gravelly  beds  borings  have  been  made  800  feet  deep  with 
out  success.  The  temperature  of  the  water  was  found  to  increase 
in  proportion  to  the  depth  of  the  wells.  A  proprietor  told  me 
he  had  found  it  very  difficult  to  get  trees  to  grow  on  the  prairie 
land,  but  he  had  succeeded,  with  great  care,  in  rearing  a  few 
mulberries. 

The  common  name  for  the  marlite,  of  which  this  treeless  soil 
is  composed,  is  "  rotten  limestone."  I  found  many  lumps  on  the 
surface,  much  resembling  white  chalk,  and  containing  shells  of 
the  genera,  Inoceramus,  Baculite,  Ammonite,  Hippurite,  and  that 
well-known  fossil  of  the  English  chalk,  Ostrea  vesicularis. 

In  the  market-place  of  Montgomery,  I  saw  an  auctioneer  sell 
ing  slaves,  and  calling  out,  as  I  passed,  "Going  for  300  dollars." 
The  next  day  another  auctioneer  was  selling  horses  in  the  same 
place.  Nearly  the  same  set  of  negroes,  men,  women,  and  boys, 
neatly  dressed,  were  paraded  there,  day  after  day.  I  was  glad 
to  find  that  some  settlers  from  the  north,  who  had  resided  here 
many  years,  were  annoyed  at  the  publicity  of  this  exhibition. 
Such  traffic,  they  say,  might  as  well  be  carried  011  quietly  in  a 
room.  Another  resident,  who  had  come  from  Kentucky,  was 
forming  a  party,  who  desire  to  introduce  into  Alabama  a  law, 
like  one  now  in  force  in  Kentucky,  that  no  negroes  shall  hence 
forth  be  imported.  By  that  statute,  the  increase  of  slaves  has, 
he  says,  been  checked.  A  case  had  lately  occurred,  of  a  dealer 
who  tried  to  evade  the  law  by  bringing  forty  slaves  into  Ken 
tucky,  and  narrowly  escaped  being  fined  600  dollars  for  each, 
but  had  the  ingenuity  to  get  off  by  pretending  that  he  was  ignor 
ant  of  the  prohibition,  and  was  merely  passing  through  with  them 
to  Louisiana.  "  By  allowing  none  to  come  in,  while  so  many 
are  emigrating  to  the  west  and  Texas,  we  may  hope,"  he  said, 
"  very  soon  to  grow  white." 

Every  evening,  at  nine  o'clock,  a  great  bell,  or  curfew,  tolls  in 
the  market-place  of  Montgomery,  after  which  no  colored  man  is 
permitted  to  be  abroad  without  a  pass.  This  custom  has,  I  un 
derstand,  continued  ever  since  some  formidable  insurrections, 


CHAP.  XXII.]  PROTRACTED  MEETING.  43 


•which  happened  many  years  ago,  in  Virginia  and  elsewhere.  I 
was  glad  to  find  that  the  Episcopal  clergyman  at  Montgomery 
had  just  established  a  Sunday  school  for  the  negroes.  I  also  hear 
that  a  party  in.  this  church,  already  comprising  a  majority  of  the 
clergy,  are  desirous  that  the  negro  congregations  should  be  rep 
resented  in  their  triennial  conventions,  which  would  be  an  im 
portant  step  toward  raising  the  black  race  to  a  footing  of  equality 
with  the  whites.  In  these  times  when  many  here  are  entertain 
ing  a  hostile  feeling  toward  Great  Britain,  and  when  the  gov 
ernment  is  lending  itself  to  the  excitement,  I  find  the  ministers 
of  the  Episcopal  Church  peculiarly  free  from  such  a  spirit,  and 
cherishing  a  desire  for  peace  and  a  friendly  disposition  toward  the 
English.  The  Methodists  had  just  been  holding  a  protracted 
meeting  in  Montgomery,  and  such  is  the  effect  of  sympathy  and 
of  the  spirit  of  competition,  that  the  religious  excitement  had 
spread  to  all  the  other  sects. 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 

Voyage  from  Montgomery  to  Mobile. — Description  of  a  large  River  Steam 
er. — Shipping  of  Cotton  at  Bluffs. — Fossils  collected  at  Landings. — Col 
lision  of  Steamer  with  the  Boughs  of  Trees. — Story  of  a  German  Stew- 
nrdess. — Emigration  of  Stephanists  from  Saxony. — Perpetuation  of  Ste- 
phaiiist  and  Mormon  Doctrines. — Distinct  Table  for  Colored  and  White 
Passengers. — Landing  at  Claiborne  by  Torchlight. — Fossil  Shells. 

Wednesday,  Jan.  28,  1846. — THE  steamer  Amaranth  was 
lying  at  the  bluff  at  Montgomery  on  the  Alabama  River,  and  was 
advertised  to  sail  for  Mobile,  a  navigation  of  more  than  300 
miles,  at  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning.  From  information  obtained 
here,  I  had  determined  to  follow  up  my  geological  inquiries  by 
going  next  to  Tuscaloosa,  on  the  Black  Warrior  River,  about  100 
miles  distant  by  land,  in  a  northwesterly  direction.  Every  one 
agreed,  however,  that  it  was  better  for  me  to  go  800  miles  by 
water,  half  of  it  against  the  stream,  instead  of  taking  the  direct 
road  ;  so  I  determined  to  go  first  to  Mobile,  due  south,  and  then 
up  the  Tombecbee  to  the  capital  of  Alabama,  being  assured  that 
I  should  gain,  both  in  time  and  money,  by  this  great  detour. 
Should  I  attempt  the  straight  road  at  this  season,  no  one  could 
insure  my  making  two  miles  an  hour,  so  tenaciously  does  the 
marlite  of  the  cretaceous  formation,  when  it  is  wet,  hold  the  car 
riage  wheels  which  sink  into  it. 

Accustomed  to  the  punctuality  of  northern  steamers,  we  got 
down  with  our  luggage  to  the  landing  at  the  hour  appointed,  but 
were  told  they  were  not  ready.  I  re-examined  a  good  geological 
section  in  the  bluff,  till  a  friend  came  to  me,  and  regretted  I  had 
come  down  to  the  boat  so  early,  for  perhaps  she  might  not  sail 
till  the  next  day.  I  was  much  annoyed  at  this  intelligence, 
although  I  had  been  forewarned  that  much  less  value  was  set  on 
time  in  the  southern  states  than  in  the  north.  At  length  we 
went  on  board,  and,  having  engaged  a  good  private  cabin,  made 
up  our  minds  to  read  and  write  there,  arid  consider  it  as  our  inn. 


CHAP.  XXIII.]  SOUTHERN  STEAMBOAT.  45 

It  was  the  first  of  these  magnificent  southern  river  boats  \ve  had 
seen,  fitted  up  for  the  two-fold  purpose  of  carrying  as  many  bales 
of  cotton  as  can  be  heaped  upon  them  without  their  sinking,  and 
taking  in  as  many  passengers  as  can  enjoy  the  luxuries  which 
southern  mariners  and  a  hot  climate  require,  especially  spacious 
cabins,  abundance  of  fresh  air,  and  protection  from  the  heat  of 
the  sun.  We  afterward  saw  many  larger  steam  vessels,  arid  some 
of  them  fitted  up  in  finer  style,  but  none  which  made  such  an 
impression  on  our  minds  as  the  Amaranth.  A  vessel  of  such 
dimensions  makes  a  grand  appearance  in  a  river  so  narrow  as  the 
Alabama  at  Montgomery  ;  whereas,  if  she  were  a  third  longer, 
she  would  be  comparatively  insignificant  on  the  Mississippi.  The 
principal  cabins  run  the  whole  length  of  the  ship  on  a  deck  above 
that  on  which  the  machinery  is  placed,  and  where  the  cotton  is 
piled  up.  This  upper  deck  is  chiefly  occupied  with  a  handsome 
saloon,  about  200  feet  long,  the  ladies'  cabin  at  one  end,  opening 
into  it  with  folding  doors.  Sofas,  rocking-chairs,  tables,  and  a 
stove  are  placed  in  this  room,  which  is  lighted  by  windows  from 
above.  On  each  side  of  it  is  a  row  of  sleeping  apartments,  each 
communicating  by  one  door  with  the  saloon,  while  the  other  leads 
out  to  the  guard,  as  they  call  it,  a  long  balcony  or  gallery,  cov 
ered  with  a  shade  or  verandah,  which  passes  round  the  whole 
boat.  The  second  class,  or  deck  passengers,  sleep  where  they 
can  on  the  lower  floor,  where, Jbesides  the  engine  and  the  cotton, 
there  are  prodigious  heaps  of  wrood,  which  are  devoured  with 
marvelous  rapidity  by  the  furnace,  and  are  as  often  restored  at 
the  different  landings,  a  set  of  negroes  being  purposely  hired  for 
that  work. 

These  steamers,  notwithstanding  their  size,  draw  very  little 
water,  for  they  are  constructed  for  rivers  which  rise  and  fall  very 
rapidly.  They  can  not  quite  realize  the  boast  of  a  western  cap 
tain,  "  that  he  could  sail  wherever  it  was  damp  ;"  but  I  was 
assured  that  some  of  them  could  float  in  two  feet  water.  The 
high-pressure  steam  escapes  into  the  air,  by  a  succession  of  explo 
sions  alternately  from  the  pipes  of  the  two  engines.  It  is  a  most 
unearthly  sound,  like  that  of  some  huge  monster  gasping  for 
breath  ;  and  when  they  clear  the  boilers  of  the  sediment  collected 


46  SHIPPING  COTTON  AT  BLUFFS.        [Cn^p.  XXIII. 

from  the  river-water,  it  is  done  by  a  loud  and  protracted  discharge 
of  steam,  which  reminded  us  of  the  frightful  noise  made  by  the 
steam  gun  exhibited  at  the  Adelaide  Gallery  in  London.  Were 
it  not  for  the  power  derived  from  the  high-pressure  principle,  of 
blowing  out  from  the  boilers  the  deposit  collected  in  them,  the 
muddiness  of  the  American  rivers  would  soon  clog  the  machinery. 
Every  stranger  who  has  heard  of  fatal  accidents  by  the  bursting 
of  boilers  believes,  the  first  time  he  hears  this  tremendous  noise, 
that  it  is  all  over  with  him,  and  is  surprised  to  see  that  his  com 
panions  evince  no  alarm.  Habit  soon  reconciled  us  to  the  sound  ; 
and  I  was  amused  afterward  to  observe  that  the  \vild  birds 
perched  on  the  trees  which  overhung  the  river,  looked  on  with 
indifference  while  the  paddle-wheels  were  splashing  in  the  water, 
and  the  steam-pipes  puffing  and  gasping  loud  enough  to  be  heard 
many  miles  off. 

After  we  had  been  on  board  a  great  part  of  the  day,  \ve  at 
length  got  under  weigh  in  the  afternoon  ;  but  what  was  my  sur 
prise  when  I  actually  discovered  that  we  were  ascending  the 
stream  instead  of  sailing  down  toward  Mobile.  On  asking  the 
meaning  of  this  proceeding,  the  mate  told  me,  very  coolly,  that 
the  captain  had  just  heard  of  some  cotton  ready  for  exportation 
some  miles  above  Montgomery.  To  this  higher  landing  we  re 
paired  ;  but  news  being  sent  that  a  rival  steamboat  was  making 
her  way  up  the  river,  the  Amaranth  set  off  down  stream  in  good 
earnest,  moving  by  aid  of  her  powerful  engines  and  the  force  of 
the  mid-current  with  such  velocity,  that  I  could  readily  believe 
that  800  miles  by  river  was  shorter  than  100  by  land. 

The  pilot  put  into  my  hands  a  list  of  the  landings  on  the  Ala 
bama  River  from  Wetumpka  to  Mobile,  no  less  than  200  of  them 
in  a  distance  of  434  miles.  A  small  part  only  of  these  consisted 
of  bluffs,  or  those  points  where  the  high  land  comes  up  to  the 
river's  edge — in  other  words,  where  there  is  no  alluvial  plain  be 
tween  the  great  stream  and  the  higher  country.  These  spots, 
being  the  only  ones  not  liable  to  inundation,  and  which  can  there 
fore  serve  as  inland  ports  when  the  river  is  full,  or  when  the 
largest  boats  can  sail  up  and  down,  are  of  great  importance  in 
the  inland  navigation  of  the  country.  A  proprietor  whose  farm 


CHAP.  XXIII.]      FOSSILS  COLLECTED  AT  LANDINGS.  47 


is  thus  advantageously  situated,  usually  builds  a  warehouse,  not 
only  for  storing  up  for  embarkation  the  produce  of  his  own  land, 
but  large  enough  to  take  in  the  cotton  of  his  neighbors.  A  long 
and  steeply-inclined  plane  is  cut  in  the  high  bank,  down  which 
one  heavy  bale  after  another  is  made  to  slide.  The  negroes  show 
great  dexterity  in  guiding  these  heavy  packages  ;  but  occasionally 
they  turn  over  and  over  before  reaching  the  deck  of  the  boat,  and 
sometimes,  though  rarely,  run  off  the  course  and  plunge  into  the 
river,  where  they  float  till  recovered.  Had  I  not  been  engaged 
in  geological  inquiries,  I  should  probably  have  had  my  patience 
severely  tried  by  such  repeated  stoppings  at  every  river  cliff;  but 
it.  so  happened  that  the  captain  always  wanted  to  tarry  at  the 
precise  points  where  alone  any  sections  of  the  cretaceous  and  ter 
tiary  strata  were  visible,  and  was  often  obliged  to  wait  long 
enough  to  enable  me  to  make  a  tolerably  extensive  collection  of 
the  most  characteristic  fossils.  In  the  present  instance — and  I 
shall  have  by-and-by  to  mention  other  similar  ones — Captain 
Bragdon  was  not  only  courteous,  but  perfectly  understood,  and 
entered  into  my  pursuits,  and  had  himself  collected  organic  re 
mains  for  a  friend  in  the  college  of  Louisville,  Kentucky  ;  so  that 
while  the  cotton  or  wood  were  taking  on  board,  he  would  often 
assist  me  in  my  labors.  Were  it  not  for  one  serious  drawback, 
a  cruise  in  a  cotton  steamer  would  be  the  paradise  of  geologists. 
Unfortunately,  in  the  season  when  the  water  is  high,  and  when 
the  facilities  of  locomotion  are  greatest,  the  base  of  every  bluff  is 
many  feet,  and  sometimes  fathoms,  under  water,  and  the  lo\ver 
portion  of  a  series  of  horizontal  strata  is  thus  entirely  concealed 
from  view.  The  bluffs  which  I  first  examined  consisted  of  a 
marlite  divided  into  horizontal  layers  as  regular  as  those  of  the 
lias  of  Europe,  and  which  might  have  been  taken  for  lias  but  for 
the  included  fossils,  which  prove  them  to  belong  to  the  creta 
ceous  formation.  At  Centerport  these  unctuous  marls  or  calca 
reous  clays  are  called  by  the  people  soap-stone,  and  form  cliffs 
150  feet  in  perpendicular  height,  in  which,  as  well  as  at  Selma, 
I  collected  the  large  Gryphcea  costata  and  the  Ostrea  falcata, 
more  than  one  species  of  Inoceramus,  and  other  characteristic 
fossil  shells.  At  White  Bluff,  where  the  blue  marlite  whitens 


48  COLLISION  WITH  TREES.  [CHAP.  XXIII. 

when  exposed  to  the  air,  a  fine  range  of  precipices  covered  with 
wood  forms  a  picturesque  feature  in  the  scenery  ;  but  I  obtained 
the  richest  harvest  of  cretaceous  fossils  far  below,  at  a  landing 
called  Prairie  Bluff. 

The  banks  of  the  Alabama,  like  those  of  the  Savannah  and 
Altarnaha  rivers,  are  fringed  with  canes,  over  which  usually  tow 
ers  the  deciduous  cypress,  covered  with  much  pendent  moss.  The 
mistletoe  enlivens  the  boughs  of  several  trees,  still  out  of  leaf,  and 
now  and  then,  through  an  opening  in  the  thicket  bordering  the 
river,  the  evergreen  pine-forest  appears  in  the  back-ground.  Some 
of  the  largest  trees  on  the  banks  are  sycamores  (Platanus  occi- 
dentalis),  called  button-wood,  one  of  which  I  measured,  and  found 
it  to  be  eighteen  feet  in  circumference.  The  old  bark  is  contin 
ually  peeling  off,  and  the  new  is  as  white  as  if  the  trunk  of  the 
tree  had  been  painted. 

When  it  was  growing  dusk,  and  nearly  all  had  retired  to  their 
cabins,  and  some  to  their  beds,  we  were  startled  by  a  loud  crash, 
as  if  parts  of  the  woodwork  of  the  steamer  were  giving  way  over 
our  heads.  At  the  same  moment  a  shower  of  broken  glass  came 
rattling  down  on  the  floor  of  the  cabin.  As  I  expected  to  land 
in  the  course  of  the  night  at  Claiborne,  I  had  not  taken  off  my 
clothes,  so  I  rushed  immediately  on  deck,  and  learnt  from  the 
captain  that  there  was  no  danger.  I  then  went  down  to  tell  the 
passengers,  especially  the  women,  who  were  naturally  in  no  small 
alarm,  that  all  was  safe.  I  found  them,  in  great  consternation, 
crowded  together  at  the  door  of  the  ladies'  cabin,  several  mothers 
with  children  in  their  arms.  When  I  returned  to  see  what  had 
happened,  a  most  singular  and  novel  scene  presented  itself.  Crash 
after  crash  of  broken  spars  and  the  ringing  of  shattered  window- 
glasses  were  still  heard,  and  the  confusion  and  noise  were  inde 
scribable.  "  Don't  be  alarmed  ;  we  have  only  got  among  the 
trees,"  said  the  captain.  This,  I  found,  was  no  uncommon  oc« 
currence  when  these  enormous  vessels  are  sweeping  down  at  full 
speed  in  the  flood  season.  Strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  higher 
the  waters  rise  the  narrower  is  the  river  channel.  It  is  true  that 
the  adjoining  swamps  and  low  lands  are  inundated  far  and  wide  ; 
but  the  steamers  must  all  pass  between  two  rows  of  tall  trees 


CHAP.  XXIIL]  CABIN  PASSENGERS.  49 

which  adorn  the  opposite  banks,  and  as  the  branches  of  these 
table  trees  stretch  half  way  over  the  stream,  the  boat,  when  the 
river  has  risen  forty  or  sixty  feet,  must  steer  between  them.  In 
the  dark,  when  they  are  going  at  the  rate  of  sixteen  miles  an  hour 
or  more,  and  the  bends  are  numerous,  a  slight  miscalculation  car 
ries  the  woodwork  of  the  great  cabin  in  among  the  heads  of  the 
trees.  In  this  predicament  I  found  the  Amaranth  when  I  got 
on  deck.  Many  a  strong  bough  had  pierced  right  through  the 
cabin  windows  on  one  side,  throwing  down  the  lights,  and  smash 
ing  the  wooden  balustrade  and  the  roof  of  the  long  gallery,  and 
tearing  the  canvas  awning  from  the  verandah.  The  engine  had 
been  backed,  or  its  motion  reversed,  but  the  steamer,  held  fast 
by  the  trees,  was  swinging  round  with  the  force  of  the  current. 
A  large  body  of  men  were  plying  their  axes  freely,  not  only  cut 
ting  off  boughs,  but  treating  with  no  respect  the  framework  of  the 
cabin  itself.  I  could  not  help  feeling  thankful  that  no  branch  had 
obtruded  itself  into  our  berths.  At  length  we  got  off,  and  the 
carpenters  and  glaziers  set  to  work  immediately  to  make  repairs. 
The  evening  before  this  adventure  we  had  been  sitting  for 
some  hours  enjoying  the  privacy  of  our  own  state-room,  from  the 
windows  of  which  we  had  a  good  view  of  the  river's  bank,  when 
at  length  my  wife  had  thought  it  polite  to  visit  the  ladies'  cabin, 
as  they  might  otherwise  think  her  unsociable.  She  found  there 
a  young  Irish  milliner  who  had  come  out  from  the  county  of 
Monaghan,  and  was  settled  at  Selma,  one  of  the  towns  on  this 
river,  where  she  said  she  was  getting  on  extremely  well.  There 
was  also  a  cracker  family,  consisting  of  a  squalling  child  and  its 
two  parents,  who  were  "  moving  to  the  Washita  river  in  Louisi 
ana."  The  young  mother  was  smoking  a  pipe,  which  her  husband, 
a  rough-looking  back-woodsman,  had  politely  lighted  for  her.  As 
this  practice  was  against  the  regulations,  my  wife  joined  the 
other  ladies  in  remonstrating,  and  she  immediately  went  out  to 
smoke  in  the  open  air  on  the  guard.  I  had  been  before  amused 
by  seeing  a  girl,  about  nine  years  old,  employed,  by  way  of  imi 
tating  her  elders,  in  smoking  a  paper  cigar  on  the  deck,  and  a 
mother,  after  suckling  an  infant  of  two  years,  give  it  some  to 
bacco  to  chew. 
VOL.  n. — C 


50  EMIGRATION  OF  STEPHANISTS.       [CHAP.  XXIII. 

Another  inmate  of  the  ladies'  cabin  was  a  German  stewardess, 
who  soon  found  out  that  my  wife  understood  her  mother  tongue, 
and,  being  in  great  want  of  sympathy,  poured  out  her  tale  of  suf 
fering  in  the  New  World  with  the  simplicity  of  character  and 
unreservedness  of  her  countrywomen.  Seven  years  ago  she  had 
been  a  happy  and  contented  peasant  at  Chemnitz  in  Saxony,  one 
of  a  united  family  of  Lutherans,  when  she  was  persuaded  by  a 
priest  to  embrace  the  opinions  of  Martin  Stephan,  a  preacher  of 
Dresden,  who  taught  that  all  theological  study  should  be  confined 
to  the  Bible  ;  that  literature  and  the  fine  arts,  being  of  human 
origin  and  worldly  in  their  nature,  ought  to  be  despised  ;  that  no 
one  could  enjoy  freedom  of  conscience  in  Germany  ;  and  that  the 
only  path  to  salvation  was  to  follow  him,  and  emigrate  to  North 
America.  He  himself  was  to  be  their  temporal  and  spiritual 
chief,  and  to  him  they  were  to  deliver  up  all  their  property.  In 
November,  1838,  700  victims  of  this  impostor  embarked  from 
Bremen,  including  six  pastors  and  four  schoolmasters.  One  of 
the  transports,  the  Amelia,  carrying  about  sixty  emigrants,  in 
cluding  children,  a  crazy  old  ship,  was  never  heard  of  again,  and 
doubtless  foundered  on  the  Atlantic.  The  other  carried  Stephan 
and  the  rest  of  his  followers  to  New  Orleans,  from  whence  they 
ascended  the  Mississippi,  and  founded  a  settlement,  called  Witt 
enberg,  on  a  rich,  aguish  flat,  bordering  the  Missouri,  above  St. 
Louis.  Here  one-fourth  of  their  number  were  swept  off  by  fever, 
and  Stephan,  who  had  deserted  a  wife  and  nine  children  in  Ger 
many,  was  detected  carrying  on  a  licentious  intercourse  with  some 
of  the  women  of  the  new  community.  Before,  however,  this 
scandal  became  notorious,  he  contrived  to  make  off  with  all  the 
money  which  had  been  intrusted  to  him  to  buy  land  for  the  new 
colony.  Hanne  Rottgen,  the  young  woman  who  related  this 
story,  went,  as  soon  as  she  recovered  from  the  ague,  to  St.  Louis, 
her  eyes  having  at  length  been  opened,  like  those  of  many  other 
Stephanists,  to  the  fraud  of  which  they  had  been  the  dupes.  She 
was  immediately  employed  to  attend  a  hospital  filled  with  num 
bers  of  her  poor  country  people  of  both  sexes,  who  had  been 
scalded  by  the  bursting  of  the  boiler  of  a  large  steam-boat.  After 
witnessing  the  terrible  sufferings  and  death  of  not  a  few  of  these 


CHAP.  XXIII.]        STEPHANISTS  AND  MORMONS.  51 


emigrants,  she  had  engaged  herself  as  stewardess  in  several  ves 
sels,  and  at  length  in  the  Amaranth.  "  But  what  became  of 
Stephan  ?"  asked  my  wife.  "  He  escaped  entirely,"  she  said, 
"  for  you  know,  madam,  there  is  no  law  in  this  country  as  there 
i-s  in  Saxony  ;  but  for  all  that,  this  is  the  land  for  the  poor  to 
thrive  in.  They  pay  me  twenty  dollars  a  month,  and  I  am  sav 
ing  money  fast ;  for,  though  home-sick,  I  can  not,  after  all  my 
follies,  return  and  throw  myself  penniless  on  my  relations."  Here 
she  began  to  shed  tears  and  to  be  much  affected,  wondering 
whether  her  mother  was  still  alive.  She  had  written  to  ask  her 
forgiveness,  as  she  had  been  her  darling,  and  in  spite  of  her  pray 
ers  and  entreaties  had  left  her  almost  heart-broken.  "  I  thought 
it  my  duty  to  go  ;  for  how  should  we  poor  peasants  not  be  de 
ceived  when  so  many  of  our  clergy  were  led  astray  by  the  cun 
ning  of  that  artful  man  ?  I  have  written  to  my  two  sisters  to 
tell  them  how  bitterly  I  repent,  and  to  ask  them  to  pardon  me." 

When  I  afterward  talked  of  this  adventure  in  a  steamer  on 
the  Mississippi,  a  fellow  traveler  exclaimed,  "  But  would  you  be 
lieve  it,  there  are  still  many  Stephanists  ?"  "  Why  not,"  said  I, 
"  are  there  not  also  many  thousand  Mormons  ?  The  fraud  of 
Stephan  was  not  more  transparent  than  that  of  Joseph  Smith  or 
his  vision,  and  the  story  he  related  so  circumstantially  of  records 
engraven  on  metallic  plates,  shining  like  gold,  which  were  deliv 
ered  to  him  by  the  angel  of  the  Lord  on  the  22d  day  of  Septem 
ber,  1827." 

Are  we  then  to  despair  of  the  progress  of  the  human  mind  in 
inquiries  in  which  it  must  ever  take  the  deepest  interest,  because 
in  a  land  where  there  are  so  many  schools,  and  so  many  millions 
of  readers,  a  free  press,  and  religious  toleration,  it  is  so  hard  to 
extinguish  a  belief  in  the  grossest  impostures  ?  By  no  means  — 
in  the  doctrines  taught  by  Stephan  and  Smith  there  was  a  mix 
ture  of  some  fiction  with  much  truth;  they  adopted  nearly  all 
the  highest  truths  of  theology  common  to  the  prevailing  religions 
of  the  world,  with  the  addition  of  nearly  all  which  Christians  be 
lieve.  In  each  sect  the  difficulty  consists  in  clearing  away  a 
greater  or  less  amount  of  human  error  and  invention  from  the  di 
vine  truths  which  they  obscure  or  conceal.  The  multitude  are 


52  DEMOCRACY  AND  SLAVERY.          [CHAP.  XXIII 

taught  by  their  spiritual  guides  in  three-fourths  of  Christendom, 
that  they  are  riot  to  inquire  for  themselves.  Even  of  the  Protest 
ant  minority,  who  profess  that  it  is  their  right  and  duty  to  exer 
cise  their  own  judgment,  how  many  are  there  who  annex  the 
condition  "provided  they  arrive  at  the  conclusions  to  which  the 
Church  has  come,  without  which  they  cannot  be  saved !"  What 
more  would  a  Stephanist  or  a  Mormon  preacher  ask,  than  the 
privilege  of  borrowing  and  inculcating  these  maxims  ? — and  how, 
if  the  use  of  them  be  freely  granted,  and  they  have  motives  for 
perpetuating  some  peculiar  sectarian  dogmas,  is  the  delusion  ever 
to  end  ? 

In  a  southern  steamer  abundant  opportunities  are  afforded  of 
witnessing  the  inconveniences  arising  out  of  the  singular  relation 
subsisting  between  the  negroes,  whether  free  or  slave,  and  the 
white  race.  The  succession  of  breakfasts,  dinners,  and  suppers 
entailed  by  it  appears  endless.  In  a  northern  boat,  after  the 
passengers  and  officers  of  the  ship  have  dined,  the  few  servants 
who  waited  on  them  have  their  meal ;  but  here  \ve  had  five  dis 
tinct  repasts  set  out,  one  after  the  other.  First,  the  cabin  passen 
gers  dine  ;  then  come  the  white  nurses,  children,  and  officers  of 
the  ship ;  thirdly,  the  deck  passengers,  being  white,  answering  to 
our  steerage  ;  fourthly,  the  white  waiters,  waited  upon  by  colored 
men  ;  fifthly,  colored  passengers,  free  or  slave,  and  colored  wait 
ers.  It  sometimes  happens  that  a  free  negro  who  has  made  a 
good  deal  of  money  is  on  board  ;  he  must  wait  till  all  the  white 
aristocracy,  including  the  waiters,  are  served,  and  then  take  his 
turn  with  the  lowest  of  the  blacks.  To  a  European  this  exclu- 
siveness  seems  the  more  unnatural  and  offensive  in  the  southern 
states,  because  they  make  louder  professions  even  than  the  north 
erners  of  democratic  principles  and  love  of  equality.  I  must  do 
them  the  justice,  however,  to  admit,  that  they  are  willing  to  carry 
out  their  principles  to  great  lengths  when  the  white  race  alone  is 
concerned.  I  heard  of  a  newly-arrived  Irish  ditcher  at  Chehaw, 
who  was  astonished  when  invited  to  sit  down  at  table  with  his 
employer,  a  proprietor  in  the  neighborhood,  who  thought  it  neces 
sary  to  recognize  him  as  an  equal.  On  one  occasion  when  I 
visited  a  lawyer  at  his  country-house  in  Alabama — one  accus- 


CHAP.  XXITI.]  LANDING  AT  CLAIBORNE.  51 

tomed  to  the  best  society  of  a  large  city,  and  the  ladies  of  whose 
family  were  refined  and  cultivated — he  felt  it  incumbent  on  him, 
to  my  great  discomfiture,  to  invite  the  driver  of  my  gig,  a  half- 
caste  Indian,  who  traveled  without  any  change  of  clothes,  to  sit 
down  with  us  at  table.  He  was  of  a  dark  shade,  but  the  blood 
was  Indian  not  African,  ancHie  was  therefore  one  of  the  southern 
aristocracy.  TJje  man  was  modest  and  unobtrusive,  and  scarce 
ly  spoke  ;  but  it  need  scarcely  be  said,  that  his  presence  checked 
the  freedom  of  conversation,  and  I  was  glad  when  his  duties  in 
the  stable  called  him  away. 

In  the  course  of  the  night  we  were  informed  that  the  Ama 
ranth  had  reached  Claiborne.  Here  we  found  a  flight  of  wooden 
steps,  like  a  ladder,  leading  up  the  nearly  perpendicular  bluff, 
which  was  150  feet  high.  By  the  side  of  these  steps  was  a 
framework  of  wrood,  forming  the  inclined  plane  down  which  the 
cotton  bales  were  lowered  by  ropes.  Captain  Bragdon  politely  gave 
his  arm  to  my  wife,  and  two  negroes  preceded  us  with  blazing 
torches  of  pine- wood,  throwing  their  light  on  the  bright  shining 
leaves  of  several  splendid  magnolias  which  covered  the  steep. 
We  were  followed  by  a  long  train  of  negroes,  each  carrying  some 
article  of  our  baggage.  Having  ascended  the  steps,  we  came  to 
a  flat  terrace,  covered  with  grass,  the  first  green  sward  we  had 
seen  for  many  weeks,  and  found  there  a  small,  quiet  inn,  where 
we  resolved  to  spend  some  days,  to  make  a  collection  of  the  fossil 
tertiary  shells,  so  well  known  to  geologists  as  abounding  in  the 
strata  of  this  cliff.  About  400  species,  belonging  to  the  Eocene 
formation,  derived  from  this  classic  ground,  have  already  been 
named,  and  they  agree,  some  of  them  specifically,  and  a  much 
greater  number  in  their  generic  forms,  with  the  fossils  of  the  mid 
dle  division  of  the  deposits  of  the  same  age  of  London  and  Hamp 
shire.* 

The  remains  of  the  zeuglodon  have  been  also  found  by  Mr. 
Hale  in  this  cliff;  but,  although  I  met  with  many  leaves  of  ter 
restrial  plants,  I  could  neither  obtain  here,  nor  in  any  part  of  the 
United  States,  a  single  bone  of  any  terrestrial  quadruped,  although 

*  They  correspond  with  the  middle  or  Bracklesham  series  of  Prestwich's 
triple  division.  See  "Quart.  Journ.  of  Geol.  Soc."  vol.  iii.  May,  1847. 


54  FOSSIL  REMAINS.  [CHAP.  XXIII. 

we  know  that  many  of  that  class  inhabited  Europe  at  this  period. 
That  some  of  these  may  be  discovered  in  America,  I  can  hardly 
doubt ;  but  the  fact  is  worthy  of  remark,  as  connected  with  the 
weight  due  to  negative  evidence.  When  strata  have  been  form 
ed  far  from  land,  so  as  to  afford  few,  if  any,  indications  of  land 
plants,  we  must  not  look  for  indications  of  air-breathing  quadru 
peds,  nor  infer  their  non-existence,  if  it  be  so  difficult  to  discover 
them  even  at  Claibome,  where  the  land  at  the  period  of  the  de 
position  of  the  marine  strata,  can  not  have  been  far  distant.* 

*  Since  writing  the  above,  I  hear  that  Mr.  Hale,  of  Mobile,  has  met  with 
some  bones  of  land  quadrupeds  in  these  strata.  For  remarks  on  the  strata 
at  Claiborne,  see  a  paper  by  the  author,  "  Quart.  Journ.  of  Geol.  Society  of 
London,"  vol.  iv.  p.  10,  June,  1848. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

Claiborne,  Alabama. — Movers  to  Texas. — State  Debts  and  Liabilities. — 
Lending  money  to  half-settled  States. —  Rumors  of  war  with  England. — 
Macon,  Alabama. — Sale  of  Slaves. — Drunkenness  in  Alabama. — Laws 
against  Dueling. — Jealousy  of  Wealth. — Emigration  to  the  West. — 
Democratic  Equality  of  Whites. — Skeleton  of  Fossil  Whale  or  Zeuglo- 
don. — Voyage  to  Mobile. 

THE  morning1  after  our  arrival  at  Claiborne,  we  found  at  the 
inn,  a  family  of  "  movers"  on  their  way  to  Texas,  sitting-  in  the 
verandah  enjoying  the  warm  sunshine  after  a  shower  of  rain. 
At  this  season,  January  29th,  the  thermometer  stood  at  80° 
Fahrenheit  in  the  shade,  and  the  air  was  as  balmy  as  on  an 
English  summer  day.  The  green  sward  was  covered  with  an 
elegant  flower,  the  Houstonia  serpyllifolia,  different  from  the 
H.  cerulia,  so  common  in  the  New  England  meadows.  Before 
the  house  stood  a  row  of  Pride-of-India  trees  (Melia  azedarach), 
laden  with  bunches  of  yellow  berries.  I  had  been  often  told  by 
the  negroes  that  the  American  robin  (Turdus  migratorius)  "got 
drunk"  on  this  fruit,  and  we  had  now  an  opportunity  of  witness 
ing  its  narcotic  properties  ;  for  we  saw  some  children  playing 
with  one  of  these  birds  before  the  house,  having  caught  it  after 
it  had  been  eating  freely  of  the  berries.  My  wife  seeing  that 
the  robin  was  in  no  small  danger  of  perishing,  bought  it  of  the 
children  for  some  sugar-plums,  and  it  soon  revived  in  our  room, 
and  flew  out  of  the  window.  In  the  evening  we  enjoyed  a  sight 
of  one  of  those  glorious  sunsets,  the  beauty  of  which  in  these  lat 
itudes  is  so  striking,  when  the  clouds  and  sky  are  lighted  up  with 
streaks  of  brilliant  red,  yellow,  and  green,  which,  if  a  painter 
should  represent  faithfully,  might  seem  as  exaggerated  and  gaudy 
as  would  the  colors  of  an  American  forest  in  autumn  when  com 
pared  with  European  woods. 

The  movers,  who  were  going  to  Texas,  had  come  down  200  miles 
from  the  upper  country  of  Alabama,  and  were  waiting  for  some 


MOVERS  TO  TEXAS.  [CHAP.  XXIV. 


others  of  their  kindred  who  were  to  follow  with  their  heavy  wagons. 
One  of  these  families  is  carrying  away  no  less  than  forty  negroes, 
and  the  cheerfulness  with  which  these  slaves  are  going,  they 
know  not  where,  with  their  owners,  notwithstanding  their  usual 
dislike  to  quit  the  place  they  have  been  brought  up  in,  shows  a 
strong  bond  of  union  between  the  master  and  "  his  people."  In 
the  last  fifteen  months  1300  whites,  and  twice  that  number  of 
slaves,  have  quitted  Alabama  for  Texas  and  Arkansas,  and  they 
tell  me  that  Monroe  County  has  lost  1500  inhabitants.  "Much 
capital,"  said  one  of  my  informants,  "  is  leaving  this  state,  and 
no  wonder  ;  for  if  we  remain  here,  we  are  reduced  to  the  alter 
native  of  high  taxes  to  pay  the  interest  of  money  so  improvidently 
borrowed  from  England,  or  to  suffer  the  disgrace  of  repudiation, 
which  would  be  doubly  shameful,  because  the  money  was  received 
in  hard  cash,  and  lent  out,  often  rashly,  by  the  state,  to  farmers 
for  agricultural  improvements.  Besides,"  he  added,  "  all  the 
expenses  of  Government  were  in  reality  defrayed  during  several 
years  by  borrowed  money,  and  the  burthen  of  the  debt  thrown 
on  posterity.  The  facility  with  which  your  English  capitalists, 
in  1821,  lent  their  cash  to  a  state  from  which  the  Indians  were 
not  yet  expelled,  without  reflecting  on  the  migratory  nature  of 
the  white  population,  is  astonishing !  The  planters  who  got 
grants  of  your  money,  and  spent  it,  have  nearly  all  of  them 
moved  off  and  settled  beyond  the  Mississippi. 

"  First,  our  Legislature  negotiates  a  loan;  then  borrows  to  pay 
the  interest  of  it ;  then  discovers,  after  some  years,  that  five  out 
of  the  sixteen  millions  lent  to  us  have  evaporated.  Our  demo 
crats  then  stigmatize  those  who  vote  for  direct  taxes  to  redeem 
their  pledges  as  *  the  high  taxation  men.'  Possibly  the  capital 
and  interest  may  eventually  be  made  good,  but  there  is  some 
risk  at  least  of  a  suspension  of  payment.  At  this  moment  the 
state  is  selling  land  forfeited  by  those  to  whom  portions  of  the 
borrowed  money  were  lent  on  mortgage,  but  the  value  of  prop 
erty  thus  forced  into  the  market,  is  greatly  depreciated." 

Although,  since  my  departure  in  1846,  Alabama  has  not  re 
pudiated,  I  was  struck  with  the  warning  here  conveyed  against 
lending  money  to  a  new  and  half-formed  community,  where  every- 


CHAP.  XXIV.]  STATE  DEBTS.  57 

thing  is  fluctuating  and  on  the  move — a  state  from  which  tire 
Indians  are  only  just  retreating,  and  where  few  whites  ever  con 
tinue  to  reside  three  years  in  one  place — where  thousands  are 
going  with  their  negroes  to  Louisiana,  Texas,  or  Arkansas — 
where  even  the  County  Court  Houses  and  State  Capitol  are  on 
the  move,  the  Court  House  of  Clarke  county,  for  example,  just 
shifted  from  Clarkesville  to  Macon,  and  the  seat  of  legislature 
about  to  be  transferred  from  Tuscaloosa  to  Montgomery.  In 
the  midst  of  such  instability,  a  feeling  of  nationality,  or  state 
pride,  can  not  easily  be  fostered.  Nevertheless,  the  resources, 
both  mineral  and  agricultural,  of  so  vast  a  territory  as  Alabama 
a  fifth  larger  in  area  than  the  whole  of  England  proper,  may 
enable  them,  with  moderate  economy,  to  overcome  all  their  diffi 
culties. 

Often  was  the  question  put  to  us,  "  Are  you  moving  ?"  But 
at  the  small  tavern  at  Claiborne  it  was  supposed  that  I  might 
be  the  Methodist  minister  whom  they  were  expecting  to  come 
from  the  north,  to  preach  a  trial  sermon.  Two  Alabamans, 
who,  as  I  afterward  learnt,  were  under  this  persuasion,  were 
talking  beside  me  of  the  chances  of  a  war  with  England,  and 
praised  the  British  ministers  for  their  offer  of  mediation.  They 
condemned  the  folly  of  the  Government  at  Washington  for  not 
accepting  it,  and  agreed  that  the  trade  of  Mobile  would  suffer 
seriously,  if  they  came  to  blows  with  the  English.  "  Calhoun," 
said  one  of  them,  "  has  pronounced  in  favor  of  peace  ;  but  they 
say  that  the  Governor-general  of  Canada  is  spending  a  mint  of 
money  on  fortifications."  "It  is  satisfactory,"  replied  his  com 
panion,  "  to  think  that  we  have  not  yet  spent  a  dollar  on  prepa 
rations  ;  yet  I  doubt  not,  if  we  had  to  fight,  that  the  English 
would  get  the  worst  of  it."  "  Yes,"  said  his  friend,  "  we  have 
whipped  them  twice,  and  should  whip  them  a  third  time." 

I  am  bound  to  state,  that  never  once,  where  I  was  known  to 
be  an  Englishman,  were  any  similar  speeches,  uncourteous  in 
their  tone  toward  my  country,  uttered  in  my  hearing. 

On  the  table  of  the  inn  at  Claiborne,  I  found  a  book  entitled 
"  Walsh's  Appeal  from  the  Judgment  of  Great  Britain,"  in 
which  all  the  provocations  given  to  the  Americans  by  English 

c* 


58  INNS  OF  SOUTHERN  STATES.          [CHAP.  XXIV. 

travelers,  and  the  daily  and  periodical  press  of  Great  Britain, 
were  brought  together  in  one  view.  It  is  at  least  instructive,  as 
showing  that  a  disposition  to  run  down  our  transatlantic  breth 
ren  was  quite  as  marked,  and  perhaps  even  more  conspicuous, 
before  any  of  the  states  had  repudiated,  than  after  the  financial 
crisis  of  1841.  So  long  as  such  an  unfriendly  and  disparaging 
tone  is  encouraged,  England  does  well  to  keep  up  a  larger  mili 
tary  force  in  Canada,  and  a  larger  navy  than  would  otherwise  be 
called  for.  It  is  only  to  be  regretted  that  the  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer  can  not  set  down  as  a  separate  item,  the  charge  for 
indulging  in  anti- American  prejudices,  for  it  is  possible  that  John 
Bull,  patient  as  he  is  of  taxation,  might  doubt  whether  the  lux 
ury  was  worth  its  cost.  When  the  landlord  saw  me  making  an 
extract  from  Walsh,  he  begged  me  to  accept  the  book ;  the 
second  occasion  in  this  tour  in  which  mine  host  had  pressed  me 
to  take  a  volume  out  of  his  library,  which  he  had  seen  me  read 
ing  with  interest. 

There  is  a  considerable  uniformity  in  the  scale  of  charges  in 
the  country  inns  in  the  southern  states.  Great  hotels  in  large 
cities  are  more  expensive,  and  small  inns  in  out-of-the-way  places, 
where  there  were  few  comforts,  considerably  cheaper.  We  never 
made  any  bargains,  and  observed  that  the  bill  was  always  equit 
ably  adjusted  according  to  the  accommodation  provided. 

From  Claiborne  we  crossed  the  Alabama  River,  and  were  hos 
pitably  received  by  Mr.  Blount,  to  whom  I  had  a  letter  of  intro 
duction  from  Mr.  Hamilton  Couper.  While  my  wife  staid 
with  Mrs.  Blount  at  Woodlands,  he  took  me  in  his  carriage 
through  the  forest,  to  the  county  town  of  Macon,  where  he  had 
business  as  a  magistrate.  Macon  (Alabama)  happened  to  lie 
.  directly  in  my  way  to  Clarkesville,  where  I  wished  to  examine 
the  geology  of  the  region  where  the  fossil  skeletons  of  the  gigantic 
zeuglodon  had  been  procured.  The  district  we  passed  through 
was  situated  in  the  fork  of  the  Alabama  and  Tombeckbee  rivers, 
where  the  aboriginal  forest  was  only  broken  here  and  there  by  a 
few  clearings.  To  travel  with  an  accomplished  and  agreeable 
resident  proprietor,  who  could  entirely  sympathize  with  my  feel 
ings  and  opinions,  in  a  district  so  recently  deserted  by  the  Indians, 


CHAP.  XXIV.]  SALE  OF  SLAVES.  5.9 

was  no  small  advantage.  When  I  got  to  Macon,  my  attention 
was  forcibly  called  to  the  newness  of  things,  by  my  friend's 
pointing  out  to  me  the  ground  where  there  had  been  a  bloody 
fight  with  the  Choctaws  and  Chickasaws,  and  I  was  told  how 
many  Indians  had  been  slaughtered  there,  and  how  the  present 
clerk  of  the  Circuit  Court  was  the  last  survivor  of  those  who  had 
won  the  battle.  The  memory  of  General  Jackson  is  quite  idol 
ized  here.  It  was  enough  for  him  to  give  public  notice  in  the 
papers  that  he  should  have  great  pleasure  in  meeting  his  friends 
at  a  given  point  on  a  given  day,  and  there  was  sure  to  be  a 
muster  of  several  hundred  settlers,  armed  with  rifles,  and  pre 
pared  for  a  desperate  fight  with  5000  or  7000  Indians. 

At  Macon  I  was  fortunate  enough  to  meet  with  Mr.  William 
Pickett,  a  friend  of  Mr.  Blount's,  who,  after  returning  from  the 
wars  in  Texas,  had  most  actively  aided  Mr.  Koch  in  digging  up 
the  skeleton  of  the  fossil  whale,  or  zeuglodon,  near  Clarkesville. 
As  I  was  anxious  to  knoAv  the  true  position  of  that  remarkable 
fossil,  and  to  ascertain  how  much  of  it  had  been  obtained  in  a 
single  locality,  I  gladly  accepted  Mr.  Pickett's  offer,  to  act  as 
guide  in  this  excursion.  On  repairing  to  the  stable  for  the  horse 
destined  to  draw  our  vehicle,  we  were  met  with  a  singular  piece 
of  intelligence.  The  stable-boy  who  had  groomed  it  in  the  morn 
ing  was  "  up  for  sale."  Without  his  assistance  we  could  not 
start,  for  this  boy  had  the  key  of  the  harness-room.  So  I  deter 
mined  to  go  to  the  auction,  where  I  found  that  a  sale  of  land  and 
negroes  was  going  on,  in  consequence  of  the  state  having  fore 
closed  one  of  those  mortgages,  before  alluded  to,  on  which  public 
money  borrowed  from  European  capitalists  had  been  lent  by  the 
state,  for  agricultural  improvements.  I  first  saw  an  old  man 
sold  for  150  dollars  ;  then  a  boy,  seventeen  years  old,  knocked 
down  for  535  dollars,  on  which  a  bystander  remarked  to  me, 
"  They  are  selling  well  to-day."  Next  came  on  the  young  mar 
in  whose  immediate  release  I  was  more  especially  interested. 
He  stepped  forward,  hat  in  hand,  with  an  easy,  natural  air 
seeming  to  be  very  indifferent  to  the  scene  around  him,  whilt 
the  auctioneer  began  to  describe  him  as  a  fine  griff  (which  mean& 
three  parts  black),  twenty-four  years  old,  and  having  many  su- 


60  DRUNKENNESS  IN  ALABAMA.  [CHAP.  XX IV. 


perior  qualities,  on  which  he  enlarged  in  detail.  There  was  a 
sharp  bidding,  which  lasted  only  a  few  minutes,  when  he  was 
sold  for  675  dollars.  Mr.  Pickett  immediately  asked  him  to  get 
ready  our  horse,  and,  as  he  came  away  with  us,  began  to  joke 
with  him,  and  told  him  "  they  have  bid  a  hundred  dollars  more 
for  you  than  I  would  have  given  ;"  to  which  he  replied,  very 
complacently,  "  My  master,  who  has  had  the  hire  of  me  for  three 
years,  knew  better  than  to  let  any  one  outbid  him."  I  discovered, 
in  short,  that  he  had  gone  to  the  sale  with  the  full  conviction 
that  the  person  whom  he  had  been  serving  was  determined  to 
buy  him  in,  so  that  his  mind  was  quite  at  ease,  and  the  price 
offered  for  him  had  made  him  feel  well  satisfied  with  himself. 

I  witnessed  no  mal-treatment  of  slaves  in  this  state,  but  drunk 
enness  prevails  to  such  a  degree  among  their  owners,  that  I  can 
not  doubt  that  the  power  they  exercise  must  often  be  fearfully 
abused.  In  the  morning  the  proprietor  of  the  house  where  I 
lodged  was  intoxicated,  yet  taking  fresh  drams  when  T  left  him, 
and  evidently  thinking  me  somewhat  unpolite  when  I  declined 
to  join  him.  In  the  afternoon,  when  I  inquired  at  the  house  of 
a  German  settler,  whether  I  could  see  some  fossil  bones  discover 
ed  on  his  plantation,  I  was  told  that  he  was  not  at  home  ;  in 
fact,  that  he  had  not  returned  the  night  before,  and  was  supposed 
to  be  lying  somewhere  drunk  in  the  woods,  his  wife  having  set 
out  in  search  of  him  in  one  direction,  and  his  sister  in  another. 
In  the  Congress  at  Washington  I  had  seen  one  of  the  represent 
atives  of  this  state,  the  worse  for  liquor,  on  his  legs  in  the 
House,  and  I  afterward  heard  of  his  being  killed  in  a  brawl  in 
Alabama ;  yet  every  one  here  speaks  of  the  great  reform  which 
the  temperance  movement  has  made,  it  being  no  longer  an 
offense  to  decline  taking  a  dram  with  your  host. 

When  the  conversation  at  Macon  turned  on  dueling,  I  re 
marked  to  one  of  the  lawyers,  that  a  new  bill  had  just  been 
passed  by  the  State  of  Mississippi,  inflicting  political  disfran- 
chisement  as  a  penalty  on  every  one  concerned,  whether,  as  first 
or  second,  in  a  duel.  He  laughed,  and  said,  "  We  have  a  simi 
lar  statute  here,  but  it  is  nugatory,  for  the  forfeited  rights  are 
always  restored  by  the  Legislature,  as  a  matter  of  course,  if  the 


CHAP.  XXIV.]  JEALOUSY  OF  WEALTH.  61 

offenders  can  prove  that  there  was  no  unfair  play  in  the  fight." 
Notwithstanding  this  assertion,  such  enactments  are  not  without 
their  significance,  and  I  believe  that  the  example  of  New  En 
gland  and  the  progress  of  civilization  is  rapidly  changing  the 
tone  of  public  opinion  in  regard  to  this  barbarous  practice. 
Soon  after  I  left  Macon,  the  news  reached  us  of  a  fatal  duel  at 
Richmond,  in  Virginia,  between  two  newspaper  editors,  one  of 
whom,  in  the  prime  of  life,  and  leaving  a  family  dependent  on 
him,  was  killed  ;  and  where  the  coroner's  jury  had  given  a  ver 
dict  of  murder,  although  the  survivor  was  afterward  acquitted. 
The  newspaper  comments  on  this  tragedy,  even  in  some  of  the 
southern  states,  were  admirable.  The  following  extract  may 

be  taken  as  an  example  : — "  Mr.  P ,  a  man  of  fifty  years' 

experience,  had  been  called  a  coward  by  a  young  man,  Mr. 
Thomas  R .  This  touched  his  honor,  which  must  be  vin 
dicated  by  putting  his  duty  as  a  son,  a  father,  a  citizen,  a  Chris 
tian,  and  a  man  at  stake.  The  point  to  be  proved  by  being  mur 
dered,  was  that  Tom  R 's  opinion  was  incorrect,  and  that 

Mr.  P was  a  man  of  honor  and  of  courage.      Mr.  P 

is  dead.  Did  his  conduct  prove  that  he  was  a  brave  or  wise 
man  ?  Is  his  reputation  better,  or  is  it  worse  for  all  this  ?  If 
he  could  rise  from  the  dead,  and  appear  again  in  the  streets  of 
Richmond,  would  he  be  counted  more  a  man  of  courage  or  honor, 

than  if  he  had  never  taken  the  least  notice  of  T.  R or  his 

opinion  ?      Mr.  R lives  and  has  his  opinion  still,  and  other 

people  have  also  their  opinion  of  him,"  &c. 

I  heard  many  anecdotes,  when  associating  with  small  proprie 
tors  in  Alabama,  which  convinced  me  that  envy  has  a  much 
ranker  growth  among  the  aristocratic  democracy  of  a  newly  set 
tled  slave  state  than  in  any  part  of  New  England  which  I  visit 
ed.  I  can  scarcely  conceive  the  ostracism  of  wealth  or  superior 
attainments  being  carried  farther.  Let  a  gentleman  who  has 
made  a  fortune  at  the  bar,  in  Mobile  or  elsewhere,  settle  in  some 
retired  part  of  the  newly  cleared  country,  his  fences  are  pulled 
down,  and  his  cattle  left  to  stray  in  the  woods,  and  various 
depredations  committed,  not  by  thieves,  for  none  of  his  property 
is  carried  away,  but  by  neighbors  who,  knowing  nothing  of 


62  JEALOUSY  OF  WEALTH.  [CHAP.  XXIV. 

him  personally,  have  a  vulgar  jealousy  of  his  riches,  and  take  for 
granted  that  his  pride  must  be  great  in  proportion.  In  a  recent 
election  for  Clarke  county,  the  popular  candidate  admitted  the  up 
right  character  and  high  qualifications  of  his  opponent,  an  old  friend 
of  his  own,  and  simply  dwelt  on  his  riches  as  a  sufficient  ground 
for  distrust.  "A  rich  man,"  he  said,  "  can  not  sympathize  with 
the  poor."  Even  the  anecdotes  I  heard,  which  may  have  been 
mere  inventions,  convinced  me  how  intense  was  this  feeling.  One, 
who  had  for  some  time  held  a  seat  in  the  Legislature  finding  him 
self  in  a  new  canvass  deserted  by  many  of  his  former  supporters, 
observed  that  he  had  always  voted  strictly  according  to  his  instruc 
tions.  "  Do  you  think,"  answered  a  former  partisan,  "that  they 
would  vote  for  you,  after  your  daughter  came  to  the  ball  in  them 
fixings  ?"  His  daughter,  in  fact,  having  been  at  Mobile,  had  had 
a  dress  made  there  with  flounces,  according  to  the  newest  Parisian 
fashion,  and  she  had  thus  sided,  as  it  were,  with  the  aristocracy 
of  the  city,  setting  itself  up  above  the  democracy  of  the  pine  woods. 
In  the  new  settlements  there  the  small  proprietors,  or  farmers,  are 
keenly  jealous  of  thriving  lawyers,  merchants,  and  capitalists.  One 
of  the  candidates  for  a  county  in  Alabama  confessed  to  me  that  he 
had  thought  it  good  policy  to  go  every  where  on  foot  when  soli 
citing  votes,  though  he  could  have  commanded  a  horse,  and  the 
distances  were  great.  That  the  young  lady,  whose  "fixings"  I 
have  alluded  to,  had  been  ambitiously  in  the  fashion,  I  make  no 
doubt  ;  for  my  wife  found  that  the  cost  of  making  up  a  dress  at 
Mobile  was  twenty  dollars,  or  four  times  the  ordinary  London 
price  !  The  material  costs  about  the  same  as  in  London  or  Paris, 
At  New  Orleans  the  charge  for  making  a  gown  is  equally  high. 
I  often  rejoiced,  in  this  excursion,  that  we  had  brought  no 
servants  with  us  from  England,  so  strong  is  the  prejudice  here 
against  what  they  term  a  white  body-servant.  Besides,  it  would 
be  unreasonable  to  expect  any  one,  who  is  not  riding  his  own 
hobby,  to  rough  it  in  the  backwoods.  In  many  houses  I  hesi 
tated  to  ask  for  water  or  towels,  for  fear  of  giving  offense, 
although  the  yeoman  with  whom  I  lodged  for  the  night  allowed 
me  to  pay  a  moderate  charge  for  my  accommodation.  Nor 
could  I  venture  to  beg  any  one  to  rub  a  thick  coat  of  mud  off 


CHAP.  XXIV.]  EMIGRANTS  TO  THE  WEST.  G1 

my  boots  or  trowsers,  lest  I  should  be  thought  to  reflect  on  the 
members  of  the  family,  who  had  no  idea  of  indulging  in  such 
refinements  themselves.  I  could  have  dispensed  cheerfully  with 
milk,  butter,  and  other  such  luxuries  ;  but  I  felt  much  the  want 
of  a  private  bed-room.  Very  soon,  however,  I  came  to  regard  it 
as  no  small  privilege  to  be  allowed  to  have  even  a  bed  to  myself. 
On  one  occasion,  when  my  host  had  humored  my  whims  so  far 
in  regard  to  privacy,  I  felt  almost  ashamed  to  see,  in  consequence, 
a  similar  sized  bed  in  the  same  room,  occupied  by  my  companion 
and  two  others.  When  I  related  these  inconveniences  afterward 
to  an  Episcopal  clergyman,  he  told  me  that  the  bishop  and  some 
of  his  clergy,  when  they  travel  through  these  woods  in  summer, 
and  the  lawyers,  when  on  the  circuit,  or  canvassing  for  votes  at 
elections,  have,  in  addition  to  these  privations,  to  endure  the 
bites  of  countless  musquitos,  fleas,  and  bugs,  so  that  I  had  great 
reason  to  congratulate  myself  that  it  was  now  so  cold.  More 
over,  there  are  parties  of  emigrants  in  some  of  these  woods, 
where  women  delicately  brought  up,  accustomed  to  be  waited 
on,  and  with  infants  at  the  breast,  may  now  be  seen  on  their 
way  to  Texas,  camping  out,  although  the  ground  within  their 
tent  is  often  soaked  with  heavy  rain.  "  If  you  were  here  in  the 
hot  season,"  said  another,  "  the  exuberant  growth  of  the  creepers 
and  briars  would  render  many  paths  in  the  woods,  through  which 
you  now  pass  freely,  impracticable,  and  venomous  snakes  would 
make  the  forest  dangerous." 

Calling  on  a  proprietor  to  beg  him  to  show  me  some  fossil 
bones,  he  finished  by  offering  me  his  estate  for  sale  at  3500  dol 
lars.  He  said  he  had  been  settled  there  for  twenty  years  with 
his  wife,  longer  than  any  one  else  in  the  whole  country.  He 
had  no  children  ;  and  when  I  expressed  wonder  that  he  could 
leave,  at  his  advanced  age,  a  farm  which  he  had  reclaimed  from 
the  wilderness,  and  improved  so  much,  he  answered,  "  I  hope  to 
feel  more  at  home  in  Texas,  for  all  my  old  neighbors  have  gone 
there,  and  new  people  have  taken  their  place  here." 

The  uncertainty  of  the  cotton  crops,  and  the  sudden  fluctua 
tions  in  the  value  of  cotton  from  year  to  year,  have  been  the  ruin 
of  many,  and  have  turned  almost  every  landowner  into  a  mer« 


64  DEMOCRATIC  EQUALITY.  [CHAP.  XXIV 

chant  and  speculator.  The  maize,  or  Indian  corn,  appears  to  be 
almost  as  precarious  a  crop,  for  this  year  it  has  entirely  failed  in 
many  places,  owing  to  the  intense  summer  heat.  I  passed  some 
mills  in  which  the  grain,  cob,  arid  husk  were  all  ground  up  to 
gether  for  the  cattle  and  hogs,  and  they  are  said  to  thrive  more 
on  this  mixture  than  on  the  grain  alone. 

The  different  stages  of  civilization  to  which  families  have 
attained,  who  live  here  on  terms  of  the  strictest  equality,  is  often 
amusing  to  a  stranger,  but  must  be  intolerable  to  some  of  those 
settlers  who  have  been  driven  by  their  losses  from  the  more  ad 
vanced  districts  of  Virginia  and  South  Carolina,  having  to  begin 
the  world  again.  Sometimes,  in  the  morning,  my  host  would  be 
of  the  humblest  class  of  "  crackers,"  or  some  low,  illiterate  Ger 
man  or  Irish  emigrants,  the  wife  sitting  with  a  pipe  in  her  mouth, 
doing  no  work  and  reading  no  books.  In  the  evening,  I  came  to 
a  neighbor,  whose  library  was  well  stored  with  works  of  French  and 
English  authors,  and  whose  first  question  to  me  was,  "  Pray  tell 
me,  who  do  you  really  think  is  the  author  of  the  Vestiges  of 
Creation?"  If  it  is  difficult  in  Europe,  in  the  country  far  from 
towns,  to  select  society  on  a  principle  of  congeniality  of  taste  and 
feeling,  the  reader  may  conceive  what  must  be  the  control  of 
geographical  circumstances  here,  exaggerated  by  ultra-democratic 
notions  of  equality  and  the  pride  of  race.  Nevertheless,  these 
regions  will  probably  bear  no  unfavorable  comparison  with  such 
parts  of  our  colonies,  in  Canada,  the  Cape,  or  Australia,  as  have 
been  settled  for  an  equally  short  term  of  years,  and  I  am  bound 
to  say,  that  I  passed  my  time  agreeably  and  profitably  in  Ala 
bama,  for  every  one,  as  I  have  usually  found  in  newly  peopled 
districts,  was  hospitable  and  obliging  to  a  stranger.  Instead  of 
the  ignorant  wonder,  very  commonly  expressed  in  out-of-the-way 
districts  of  England,  France,  or  Italy,  at  travelers  who  devote 
money  and  time  to  a  search  for  fossil  bones  and  shells,  each 
planter  seemed  to  vie  with  another  in  his  anxiety  to  give  me  in 
formation  in  regard  to  the  precise  spots  where  organic  remains 
had  been  discovered.  Many  were  curious  to  learn  my  opinion 
as  to  the  kind  of  animal  to  which  the  huge  vertebrae,  against 
which  their  plows  sometimes  strike,  may  have  belonged.  The 


CHAP.  XXIV.]        FOSSIL  WHALE,  OR  ZEUGLODON.  C5 

magnitude,  indeed,  and  solidity  of  these  relics  of  the  colossal  zeug- 
lodon,  are  such  as  might  well  excite  the  astonishment  of  the 
most  indifferent.  Dr.  Buckley  informed  me  that  on  the  estate 
of  Judge  Creagh,  which  I  visited,  he  had  assisted  in  digging  out 
one  skeleton,  where  the  vertebral  column,  almost  unbroken,  ex 
tended  to  the  length  of  seventy  feet,  and  Dr.  Emmons  afterward 
showed  me  the  greater  part  of  this  skeleton  in  the  Museum  of 
Albany,  New  York.  On  the  same  plantation,  part  of  another 
backbone,  fifty  feet  long,  was  dug  up,  and  a  third  was  met  with 
at  no  great  distance.  Before  I  left  Alabama,  I  had  obtained 
evidence  of  so  many  localities  of  similar  fossils,  chiefly  between 
Macon  and  Clarkesville,  a  distance  of  ten  miles,  that  I  concluded 
they  must  have  belonged  to  at  least  forty  distinct  individuals. 

I  visited,  with  Mr.  Pickett,  the  exact  spot  where  he  and  Mr. 
Koch  disinterred  a  portion  of  the  skeleton  afterward  exhibited  in 
New  York  under  the  name  of  Hydrarchos,  or  "  the  Water-king." 
The  bones  were  imbedded  in  a  calcareous  marly  stratum  of  the 
Eocene  formation,  and  I  observed  in  it  many  casts  of  the  cham 
bers  of  a  large  nautilus,  which  were  at  first  mistaken  by  Koch 
for  the  paddles  of  the  huge  animal.  Portions  of  the  vertebral 
column,  exhibited  by  him,  in  1845,  at  New  York  and  Boston, 
were  procured  in  Washington  County,  fifteen  miles  distant  in  a 
direct  line  from  this  place,  where  the  head  was  discovered.* 
Some  single  vertebra,  which  I  found  here,  were  so  huge  and  so 
impregnated  with  carbonate  of  lime,  that  I  could  not  lift  them 
from  the  ground  without  an  effort.  Professor  Jeffries  Wyman 
was  the  first  who  clearly  pointed  out  that  the  bones,  of  which 
the  factitious  skeleton  called  Hydrarchos  was  made  up,  must 
have  belonged  to  different  individuals.  They  were  in  different 
stages  of  ossification,  he  said,  some  adult,  others  immature,  a 
state  of  things  never  combined  in  one  and  the  same  individ 
ual.  Mr.  Owen  had  previously  maintained,  that  the  animal  was 
not  reptilian,  but  cetacean,  because  each  tooth  was  furnished 
with  double  roots,  implanted  in  corresponding  double  sockets. 
After  my  return  from  America,  a  nearly  entire  skull  of  the  zeug- 
lodon  was  found  by  Mr.  S.  F.  Holmes  and  Professor  L.  ft, 
*  See  "American  Jour,  of  Science,"  New  Series,  vol.  i.  p.  312. 


68  VOYAGE  TO  MOBILE.  [CHAP.  XXIV. 

Gibbes,  of  Charleston,  S.  C.,  and  it  was  found  to  have  the 
double  occipital  condyles,  only  met  with  in  mammals,  and  the 
convoluted  tympanic  bones  which  are  characteristic  of  cetaceans, 
so  that  the  real  nature  of  this  remarkable  extinct  species  of  the 
whale  tribe  has  now  been  placed  beyond  all  doubt. 

Feb.  5. — On  my  return  from  this  excursion,  I  rejoined  my 
wife  at  Mr.  Blount's,  and  we  then  went  back  to  the  inn  at  Clai- 
borne  to  wait  for  a  steamer  bound  for  Mobile.  The  first  large 
vessel  which  touched  for  a  moment  at  the  landing,  came  up  the 
river  from  that  city,  and  stopped  to  know  if  there  were  any  pas- 
seno-ers.  The  answer  was,  "No,  what  news  ?"  To  which  they 
replied,  "  Cotton  up  one  eighth — no  war."  They  were  off  in  an 
instant,  and,  a  few  hours  later,  when  it  was  dark,  another  large 
vessel  was  hailed  coming  down  stream.  We  were  glad  to  find 
that  it  was  the  Amaranth,  commanded  by  our  old  friend  Captain 
Bragdon,  who  had  sailed  up  and  down  more  than  800  miles,  in 
the  interval  since  we  saw  him.  Once  more  we  descended  the 
steep  cliff,  on  the  slope  of  which  we  had  spent  many  pleasant 
hours,  gathering  hundreds  of  beautifully  preserved  shells,  and 
saw  it  illuminated  by  a  blaze  of  torch-light. 

Between  Claiborne  and  Mobile,  there  are  about  100  miles  of 
river  navigation,  our  course  being  nearly  due  south.  About  half 
way, -we  passed,  in  the  night,  the  junction  of  the  Tombeckbee 
and  Alabama  rivers,  and,  in  the  morning,  saw  in  all  directions  a 
low  flat  country,  which  continued  till  we  reached  the  metropolis 
of  Alabama. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

Voyage  from  Mobile  to  Tuscaloosa. — Visit  to  the  Coal-Field  of  Alabama. — 
Its  Agreement  in  Age  with  the  ancient  Coal  of  Europe. — Absenteeism 
in  Southern  States. — Progress  of  Negroes. — Unthriftiness  of  Slave-Labor. 
— University  of  Tuscaloosa. — Churches. — Bankruptcies. — Judges  and 
Law  Courts. — Geology  on  the  Tombeckbee  River. — Artesian  Wells. — 
Limestone  Bluff  of  St.  Stephen's. — Negro  shot  by  Overseer. — Involuntary 
Efforts  of  the  Whites  to  civilize  the  Negroes. — New  Statute  in  Georgia 
against  Black  Mechanics. — The  Effects  of  speedy  Emancipation  and  the 
free  Competition  of  White  and  Black  Laborers  considered. 

Feb.  8,  1846. — THE  Tuscaloosa  steamer  was  just  ready  to 
sail  the  next  morning  for  Mobile,  up  the  great  western  tributary 
of  the  Alabama,  called  the  Tombeckbee  (or  more  familiarly  "the 
Bigby")  ;  I  determined,  therefore,  to  embark  in  her  for  the  capi 
tal  of  the  state,  about  400  miles  distant  by  water  to  the  north, 
where  I  wished  to  explore  the  coal-field  in  which  the  coal  used 
for  gas  and  fuel  at  Mobile  is  procured,  and  to  ascertain  its  geo 
logical  age.  Our  steamer  was  170  feet  long,  and  made  about 
ten  miles  an  hour  against  the  stream.  She  carried  stores  of  all 
kinds  to  the  upper  country,  but  was  not  heavily  laden  ;  and,  on 
her  return,  is  to  bring  down  a  large  freight  of  cotton.  By  means 
of  the  high-pressure  principle  and  the  horizontal  movement  of  the 
piston,  she  draws  only  a  few  feet  of  water,  notwithstanding  her 
great  length.  These  steamers  never  appear  to  such  advantage 
as  when  stemming  an  adverse  current,  for  the  boat  can  then  be 
steered  with  more  precision,  and  less  time  is  lost  at  the  landings  ; 
at  each  of  these  they  can  go  up  direct  to  the  bank,  whereas,  in 
descending,  they  have  to  turn  round  and  re-ascend  the  stream 
before  they  can  stop.  There  were  also  rafts  laden  with  hugo 
piles  of  wood  ready  to  be  taken  in  tow  at  different  points,  the 
logs  being  thrown  on  board  by  our  negroes,  while  the  steamer 
was  going  on  at  full  speed.  The  empty  raft  is  then  turned 
adrift,  and  is  easily  piloted  down  the  stream  by  two  men,  a  ma- 


68  THE  TOMBECKBEE  RIVER.  [CHAP.  XXV. 

noeuvre  which  could  not  be  practiced  when  vessels  are  going 
in  the  opposite  direction.  Al|  the  chairs  in  the  cabin  of  the 
Tuscaloosa  were  so  constructed  as  to  be  capable  of  floating,  and 
acting  as  life-preservers — a  useful  precaution  on  a  river,  whatever 
may  be  thought  of  such  safeguards  in  an  ocean  steamer. 

The  river  Tombeckbee  was  so  high  that  the  trees  of  both 
banks  seemed  to  be  growing  in  a  lake.  Before  dark,  we  came 
to  the  limestone  bluff  at  St.  Stephen's,  more  than  sixty  miles  due 
north  of  Mobile,  and  nearly  150  miles  by  the  windings  of  the 
river.  The  tide  is  still  slightly  perceptible,  even  at  this  distance 
from  the  sea,  and  the  water  never  rises  during  a  flood  more  than 
five  or  six  feet  above  its  ordinary  level ;  whereas,  higher  up,  at 
Demopolis,  the  extreme  rise  is  not  less  than  fifty  feet,  and  at 
Tuscaloosa,  sixty-nine  feet.  At  the  latter  place,  indeed,  we 
found  the  waters  so  high,  that  the  falls  were  converted  into 
mere  rapids.  The  magnificent  scale  of  the  navigation  on  these 
southern  rivers  in  the  rainy  season,  contrasts  remarkably  with 
the  want  of  similar  facilities  of  water  communication  in  Texas 
and  the  more  western  countries  bordering  the  gulf  of  Mexico. 
We  admired  the  canes  on  the  borders  of  the  river  between  Tus 
caloosa  and  Dernopolis,  some  of  which  I  found  to  be  thirty  feet 
high.  Whether  this  magnificent  reed,  which  is  said  sometimes 
to  grow  forty  feet  high,  is  a  distinct  species,  or  merely  a  variety 
of  Miegia  macrosperma,  which  I  had  seen  from  six  to  ten  feet 
high,  as  far  north  as  Kentucky  and  North  Carolina,  botanists 
are  not  yet  agreed. 

Tuscaloosa  is  situated,  like  Augusta,  Milledgeville,  and  Co 
lumbus,  at  the  falls  of  a  river,  though,  in  this  instance,  the  falls 
do  not  occur,  as  usual,  at  the  junction  of  the  granitic  rocks,  with 
the  tertiary  or  cretaceous  strata,  but  at  the  point  where  the  latter 
first  meet  the  carboniferous  formation.  The  lower  beds  of  the 
horizontal  cretaceous  series  in  contact  with  the  inclined  coal-mea 
sures,  consist  of  gravel,  some  of  the  quartzose  pebbles  being  as 
large  as  hens'  eggs,  and  they  look  like  an  ancient  beach,  as  if  the 
cretaceous  sea  had  terminated  here,  or  shingle  had  been  accumu 
lated  near  a  shore. 

There  is 'a  flourishing  college  at  Tuscaloosa,  standing  upon  a 


CHAP.  XXV.]  COAL-FIELD  OF  ALABAMA.  6D 


hill  450  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  Here  I  was  welcomed 
by  the  professor  of  chemistry,  Mr.  Brumby,  who  had  the  kindness 
to  set  out  immediately  with  me  (Feb.  10)  to  examine  the  coal 
fields  lying  immediately  north  of  this  place.  Starting  in  a  north 
easterly  direction,  we  first  entered  a  hilly  country  formed  of  sand 
stone,  grit,  and  shale  of  the  coal  formation,  precisely  like  the  strata 
in  Avhich  coal  occurs  in  England.  These  hills  were  covered 
with  long-leaved  pines,  and  the  large  proportion  they  bear  to  the 
hard  wood  is  said  to  have  been  increased  by  the  Indian  practice 
of  burning  the  grass ;  the  bark  of  the  oak  and  other  kinds  of  hard 
wood  being  more  combustible,  and  more  easily  injured  by  fire, 
than  that  of  the  fir  tribe.  Every  where  the  young  seedlings  of 
the  long-leaved  pine  were  coming  up  in  such  numbers  that  one 
might  have  supposed  the  ground  to  have  been  sown  with  them  ; 
and  I  was  reminded  how  rarely  we  see  similar  self-sown  firs  in 
English  plantations.  When  we  had  gone  about  twenty  miles 
northeast  of  Tuscaloosa,  we  came  to  a  higher  country,  where 
nearly  all  the  pines  disappeared,  and  were  replaced  by  oak,  hick 
ory,  sumach,  gum-trees,  sassafras,  and  many  others.  In  some 
clearings  here,  as  in  Georgia  and  the  Carolinas,  the  quantity  or 
cordage  of  wood  fit  for  charcoal  produced  in  thirty  years  by  the 
new  growth,  is  said,  from  its  greater  density,  to  have  equaled  the 
wood  contained  in  the  aboriginal  forest. 

Near  the  banks  of  the  Black  Warrior  River,  we  examined  sev 
eral  open  quarries  of  coal,  where  the  edges  of  the  beds  had  been 
dug  into  by  different  proprietors,  no  regular  mining  operations 
having  as  yet  been  attempted.  Even  at  the  outcrop  the  coal  is 
of  excellent  quality,  and  highly  bituminous,  and  I  soon  satisfied 
myself  that  the  strata  were  not  of  the  age  of  the  Richmond  coal 
before  described,^  but  were  as  ancient  as  that  of  the  Alleghany 
Hills,  or  of  Western  Virginia.  In  the  beds  of  black  shale  cover 
ing  each  coal-seam,  were  impressions  of  fossil  plants,  precisely  sim 
ilar  to  those  occurring  in  the  ancient  coal-measures  of  Europe 
and  America.  Among  these  we  found  more  than  one  species  of 
Catamite,  several  ferns  of  the  genera  Sphenopteris  and  JVeurop- 
teris,  the  trunks  of  Lepidodendron  and  Sigilaria,  the  stems  and 
*  Ante,  vol.  i.  p.  214. 


70  ABSENTEEISM  IN  SOUTHERN  STATES.     [CHAP.  XXV. 


leaves  of  Aster ophyllite,  and  in  other  beds  the  characteristic  root 
called  Stigmaria,  not  uncommon.^ 

According  to  Professor  Brumby,  this  coal-field  of  the  Warrior 
River  is  ninety  miles  long  from  north  to  south,  and  from  ten  to 
thirty  miles  in  breadth,  and  includes  in  it  some  coal-seams  not 
less  than  ten  feet  thick.  It  forms  a  southern  prolongation  of  the 
great  Appalachian  coal-field,  with  which  I  was  unacquainted  when 
I  compiled  my  map,  published  in  1845,  of  the  geology  of  North 
America.!  Its  geographical  situation  is  peculiarly  interesting  ; 
for,  being  situated  in  lat.  33°  10'  north,  it  constitutes  at  present 
the  extreme  southern  limit  to  which  the  ancient  carboniferous 
vegetation  has  been  traced  in  the  northern  hemisphere,  whether 
on  the  east  or  west  side  of  the  Atlantic. 

Continuing  our  route  into  the  upland  country,  we  entered  about 
thirty-three  miles  N.E.  of  Tuscaloosa,  a  region  called  Rooke's 
Valley,  where  rich  beds  of  ironstone  and  limestone  bid  fair,  from 
their  proximity  to  the  coal,  to  become  one  day  a  source  of  great 
mineral  wealth.  At  present  the  country  has  been  suffered  to  re 
trograde,  and  the  population  to  grow  less  numerous  than  it  was 
twenty  years  ago,  owing  to  migrations  to  Louisiana  and  Texas, 
and  partly  to  the  unthriftiness  of  slave  labor. 

We  traveled  in  a  carriage  with  two  horses,  and  could  advance 
but  a  few  miles  a  day,  so  execrable  and  often  dangerous  was  the 
state  of  the  roads.  Occasionally  we  had  to  get  out  and  call  at  a 
farm-house  to  ask  the  proprietor's  leave  to  take  down  his  snake 
fence,  to  avoid  a  deep  mud-hole  in  the  road.  Our  vehicle  was 
then  driven  over  a  stubble  field  of  Indian  corn,  at  the  end  of 
which  we  made  our  exit,  some  fifty  yards  on,  by  pulling  down 
another  part  of  the  fence.  In  both  places  the  labor  of  rebuilding 
the  fence,  which  consists  simply  of  poles  loosely  placed  together 
and  not  nailed,  was  entailed  upon  us,  and  caused  no  small  delay. 

One  of  the  evils,  tending  greatly  to  retard  the  progress  of  the 
southern  states,  is  absenteeism,  which  is  scarcely  known  in  the 
North.  The  cheapness  of  land,  caused  by  such  rapid  emigration 

*  See  "  Quart.  Journ.  of  Geol.   Soc.,"  vol.  ii.  p.  278,  and  for  a  list  of 
the  plants,  by  Mr.  C.  J.  F.  Bunbury,  p.  282.  ibid, 
t  See  "Travels,"  &c.  vol.  ii. 


CHAP.  XXV.]  PROGRESS  OF  NEGROES,  71 

to  the  South  and  West,  and  the  frequent  sales  of  the  estates  of 
insolvents,  tempts  planters  to  buy  more  land  than  they  can  man 
age  themselves,  which  they  must  therefore  give  in  charge  to  over 
seers.  Accordingly,  much  of  the  property  in  Alabama  belongs  to 
rich  Carolinians,  and  some  wealthy  slave-owners  of  Alabama  have 
estates  in  Mississippi.  With  a  view  of  checking  the  increase  of 
these  "pluralities,"  a  tax  has  recently  been  imposed  on  absentees. 
In  Alabama,  as  in  Georgia,  I  found  that  the  colored  people  were 
more  intelligent  in  the  upper  country,  and  I  listened  with  satis 
faction  to  complaints  of  their  setting  themselves  up,  and  being- 
less  content  than  formerly  with  their  lot.  That  men  of  color  can 
sometimes  make  large  fortunes  in  trade,  was  proved  to  me  by  a 
fact  which  came  accidentally  to  my  knowledge.  One  of  them, 
by  standing  security  for  a  white  man,  had  lately  lost  no  less  than 
17,000  dollars,  or  3400  guineas;  yet  he  was  still  prospering, 
and  kept  a  store,  and,  being  a  free  man  would  willingly  have 
sent  his  son  to  the  college  of  Tuscaloosa,  had  he  not  been  prevent 
ed  by  the  prejudices  of  a  white  aristocracy,  ostentatiously  boast 
ful  of  its  love  of  equality.  In  consequence  of  similar  impediments, 
many  thriving  artisans  of  the  colored  race  remain  uneducated, 
and  are  obliged  to  have  white  men  to  write  for  them  and  collect 
their  debts  ;  and  I  found  that  many  cabinet-makers,  carpenters, 
builders,  and  other  mechanics,  earning  high  wages,  who,  in  New 
England,  would  send  their  sons  to  college,  do  not  contribute  here 
even  to  the  maintenance  of  common  schools,  their  children  riot 
being  permitted  by  law  to  learn  to  read  and  write.  I  can  not 
believe,  however,  that  this  state  of  things  can  endure  many  years, 
for  I  found  that  an  excellent  Sabbath  school  had  been  established 
by  the  Presbyterians  in  Tuscaloosa,  for  the  children  of  negroes. 
There  are  two  colored  men  in  this  town,  who,  having  a  dash  of 
Indian  as  well  as  negro  blood  in  their  veins,  have  become  the 
owners  of  slaves. 

Frequent  mention  was  made  during  our  stay  in  Alabama,  of  a 
negro  named  Ellis,  a  blacksmith,  who  had  taught  himself  Greek 
and  Latin.  He  is  now  acquiring  Hebrew,  and  I  was  sorry  to 
hear  that  the  Presbyterians  contemplate  sending  him  as  a  mis 
sionary  to  Liberia.  If  it  were  an  object  in  the  south  to  elevate 


72  FREE  AND  SLAVE  LABOR.  [CHAP.  XXV. 

the  blacks,  he  might  be  far  more  instrumental  in  forwarding  the 
cause  of  civilization  and  Christianity  by  remaining  at  home,  for 
the  negroes  like  a  preacher  of  their  own  race. 

The  colored  domestic  servants  are  treated  with  great  indul 
gence  at  Tuscaloosa.  One  day  some  of  them  gave  a  supper  to  a 
large  party  of  their  friends  in  the  house  of  a  family  which  we 
visited,  and  they  feasted  their  guests  on  roast  turkeys,  ice-creams, 
jellies,  and  cakes.  Turkeys  here  cost  only  seventy-five  cents,  or 
about  three  shillings  the  couple,  prepared  for  the  table  ;  the  price 
of  a  wild  turkey,  an  excellent  bird,  is  twenty-five  cents,  or  one 
shilling.  After  calculating  the  interest  of  the  money  laid  out  in 
the  purchase  of  the  slaves,  and  the  price  of  their  food,  a  lawyer 
undertook  to  show  me  that  a  negro  cost  less  than  an  English 
servant ;  "  but,  as  two  blacks  do  the  work  of  only  one  white,  it 
is  a  mere  delusion,"  he  said,  '•  to  imagine  that  their  labor  is  not 
dearer."  It  is  usual,  moreover,  not  to  exact  the  whole  of  their 
time  for  domestic  duties.  I  found  a  footman,  for  example,  work 
ing  on  his  own  account  as  a  bootmaker  at  spare  hours,  and  another 
getting  perquisites  by  blacking  the  students'  shoes. 

That  slave  labor  is  more  expensive  than  free,  is  an  opinion 
which  is  certainly  gaining  ground  in  the  higher  parts  of  Alabama, 
and  is  now  professed  openly  by  some  northerners  who  have  settled 
there.  One  of  them  said  to  me,  "  Half  the  population  of  the 
south  is  employed  in  seeing  that  the  other  half  do  their  work,  arid 
they  who  do  work,  accomplish  half  what  they  might  do  under  a 
better  system."  "  We  can  not,"  said  another,  "  raise  capital 
enough  for  new  cotton  factories,  because  all  our  savings  go  to  buy 
negroes,  or,  as  has  lately  happened,  to  feed  them,  when  the  crop 
is  deficient."  A  white  bricklayer  had  lately  gone  from  Tusca 
loosa  to  serve  an  apprenticeship  in  his  trade  at  Boston.  He  had 
been  earning  there  2£  dollars  a  day,  by  laying  3000  bricks  daily. 
A  southern  planter,  who  had  previously  been  exceedingly  boastful 
and  proud  of  the  strength  of  one  of  his  negroes  (who  could,  in 
fact,  carry  a  much  greater  weight  than  this  same  white  brick 
layer),  was  at  first  incredulous  when  he  heard  of  this  feat,  for  his 
pattern  slave  could  not  lay  more  than  1000  bricks  a  day. 

During  my  absence  on  the  geological  excursion  above  mention- 


CHAP.  XXV.]  CHURCHES.  73 

ed,  through  forests  recently  abandoned  by  the  Indians,  and  where 
their  paths  may  still  be  traced,  I  found  that  my  wife  had  made 
many  agreeable  acquaintances  at  Tuscaloosa.  Two  of  the  ladies 
she  had  seen  (New  Englanders,  who  had  married  southerners) 
were  reading  the  works  of  Schiller  and  Goethe  in  the  original  for 
their  amusement.  My  companion,  the  Professor  of  Chemistry, 
was  not  the  only  one  from  whom  I  obtained  much  scientific  in 
formation,  and  we  enjoyed  the  pleasure,  one  clear  night,  of  look 
ing  through  a  telescope  recently  sent  from  London,  and  were 
shown  by  Mr.  Barnard,  the  teacher  of  astronomy,  some  double 
stars  and  southern  constellations  not  visible  in  England. 

The  annual  expense  of  a  student  in  the  University  is  3  0  0  dol 
lars,  or  sixty  guineas  a  year,  including  board.  A  gentleman, 
whose  family  consisted  of  eight  individuals,  with  eight  negro  serv 
ants,  told  me  that  he  could,  not  live  respectably  for  less  than  1700 
dollars  a  year  (340  guineas.)  Yet  he  paid  no  less  than  40  dol 
lars,  or  eight  guineas,  a  year,  for  a  pew  in  the  Presbyterian 
church,  holding  six  persons,  which  will  give  some  idea  of  the  lib 
eral  support  afforded,  under  the-  voluntary  system,  to  the  minis 
ters  of  religion.  Among  the  professors  here,  there  are  Baptists, 
Presbyterians,  Episcopalians,  and  I  was  told  of  one  that  he  was 
not  a  member  of  any  church,  but  a  regular  attendant  at  the  Bap 
tist  or  Presbyterian  meeting.  On  Sunday,  we  heard  the  Bishop 
of  Alabama  preach,  the  congregation  here  being  reckoned  the 
second  in  the  state.  The  first  is  at  Mobile,  and  there  are  about 
ten  in  all.  The  service  was  read  by  another  clergymen,  and  as, 
according  to  the  usual  custom  in  America,  there  was  no  clerk, 
the  Bishop  read  the  responses  and  gave  out  the  psalms,  seeming 
to  us,  at  first,  to  be  performing  the  office  of  clerk.  It  often  struck 
me  as  an  advantage  in  the  United  States,  that  the  responses  are 
never  read  by  an  illiterate  man,  as  happens  not  uncommonly  in 
our  country  parishes,  and  the  congregation  joins  in  the  service 
more  earnestly  when  the  part  which  properly  belongs  to  them 
does  not  devolve  on  a  regular  functionary.  A  few  days  later, 
when  I  was  on  my  way,  in  a  steamer,  to  Mobile,  I  conversed 
with  an  Episcopal  clergyman,  a  high  churchman,  whose  profes 
sion  I  had  recognized  by  the  strictness  of  his  costume.  He  told 

VOL.  II. D 


74  JUDGES  AND  LAW  COURTS.  [CHAP.  XXV. 

me  he  meant  to  visit  England,  and,  with  that  view,  had  for  some 
months  abstained  entirely  from  the  chewing  of  tobacco,  having 
been  told  it  would  be  considered  a  breach  of  good  manners  there. 
His  physician,  also,  had  assured  him  that  this  habit,  which  he 
had  taken  pains  to  acquire  when  a  boy,  because  he  thought  it 
manly,  though  much  against  his  natural  taste,  was  injuring  his 
health.  He  seemed  to  know  the  names  of  almost  every  bishop 
and  dignitary  of  the  English  Church,  their  incomes  and  shades 
of  opinion,  and  regretted  that  Archbishop  Whately  had  taken 
such  low  ground  in  regard  to  the  apostolic  succession.  "  The 
bishop  of  this  diocese,"  he  said,  "receives  about  800/.  a  year, 
and  has  to  pay  his  own  traveling  expenses,  but  in  the  older  states 
the  bishops  have  higher  salaries."  Episcopal  clergymen  usually 
receive  about  500  dollars  (or  100  guineas)  in  country  parishes, 
and  four  times  that  sum  in  large  towns,  or  even  more.  Upon 
the  whole,  he  thought  them  well  paid,  in  proportion  to  the  aver 
age  scale  of  fortunes  in  the  United  States,  and  he  was  convinced, 
that  as  the  wealthiest  class  are  so  often  Episcopalians,  his  church 
is  a  gainer  in  worldly  advantages  as  well  as  spiritual  influence-, 
by  being  wholly  unconnected  with  the  state. 

In  the  afternoon,  the  Presbyterian  minister  of  Tuscaloosa  de 
livered  a  good  discourse  on  the  necessity  of  a  higher  standard  of 
honor  in  commercial  affairs.  Channing  had  said,  that  they  who 
become  insolvent  by  over-trading,  often  inflict  more  misery  than 
highwaymen  and  thieves  ;  and  this  preacher  affirmed  that  for 
each  hundred  persons  engaged  in  trade  in  Alabama,  there  had 
been  ninety-seven  bankruptcies.  One  of  the  citizens,  who  was 
scandalized  at  this  assertion,  afterward  raised  the  question,  whether 
it  was  true,  arid  I  asked  if  any  one  of  the  party  could  name  a 
tradesman  in  their  town  who  had  not  failed  once  in  the  last 
twenty  years.  They  were  only  able  to  mention  two. 

I  was  surprised  at  the  number  of  lawyers  at  Tuscaloosa  who 
enjoy  the  title  of  Judge,  and  equally  amused  when  the  cause  was 
explained  to  me.  False  notions  of  economy  have  from  time  to 
time  induced  the  democracy  to  lower  the  salaries  of  the  judges; 
especially  in  the  inferior  courts.  The  consequence  has  been,  that 
as  the  state  can  no  longer  command  the  services  of  the  best  law- 


CHAP.  XXV. J  GEOLOGY.  73 

yers,  the  bench  has  grown  weaker  than  the  bar,  and  the  author 
ity  of  judicial  decisions  has  been  impaired.  Hence  the  increased 
number  of  appeals  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  state  now  sitting 
at  Tuscaloosa.  Yet,  in  spite  of  this  augmentation  of  business, 
the  income  of  the  judges  in  this  court  also  has  been  lowered  from 
3000  to  2500  dollars  ;  although  lawyers  in  good  practice  in  Mo 
bile  have  been  known  to  make  10,000  or  14,000  dollars  a  year. 
It  is  by  no  means  uncommon,  therefore,  for  one  who  has  a  large 
family,  to  give  up  the  bench  and  return  to  the  bar ;  but,  in  that 
case,  the  title  of  Judge  is  still  given  to  him  by  courtesy,  and  is 
much  prized,  especially  by  northern  men,  who  are  willing  to 
make  a  sacrifice  for  this  honor,  by  serving  a  few  years  on  the 
bench  and  then  retiring  from  it. 

I  have  before  alluded  to  the  deep  ravines  recently  cut  through 
incoherent  strata  in  Georgia,  after  the  natural  wood  has  been 
felled.*  One  of  these  modern  gulleys  may  now  be  seen  intersect 
ing  most  inconveniently  the  main  street  of  Tuscaloosa,  and  sev 
eral  torrents  are  cutting  their  way  backward  through  the  "  cre 
taceous"  clay,  sand,  and  gravel  of  the  hill  on  which  the  Capitol 
stands.  They  even  threaten  in  a  few  years  to  undermine  that 
edifice.  I  had  observed  other  recent  ravines,  from  seventy  to 
eighty  feet  deep,  in  the  Eocene  strata  between  Macon  and  Clarkes- 
ville  (Alabama),  where  the  forest  had  been  felled  a  few  years 
before. 

On  my  way  back  from  Tuscaloosa  to  Mobile,  I  had  a  good 
opportunity  of  examining  the  geological  structure  of  the  country, 
seeing  various  sections,  first  of  the  cretaceous,  and  then  lower 
down  of  the  tertiary  strata.  The  great  beds  of  gravel  and  sand 
above  alluded  to,  forming  the  inferior  part  of  the  cretaceous  series, 
might  from  their  want  of  consolidation,  be  mistaken  for  much 
newer  deposits,  if  their  position  on  the  Tombeckbee,  as  well  as 
on  the  Alabama  River  at  Montgomery,  were  not  perfectly  clear. 
They  pass  beneath  the  great  marlite  formation,  full  of  cretaceous 
shells,  which  gives  rise  to  the  prairie  soils  before  described,!  as 
nearly  destitute  of  natural  wood,  and  crossing  Alabama  in  an 
east  and  west  direction.  These  I  examined  at  Erie,  at  Demo- 
*  Ante,  p.  28.  *  Ante,  p.  41. 


76  ARTESIAN  WELLS.  [CHAP.  XXV. 

polls,  and  at  Arcola,  where  they  contain  hippurites  and  other  char 
acteristic  fossils.  The  depth  to  which  they  have  sunk  Artesian 
wells  through  them  in  many  places  (between  500  and  1000 
feet),  is  astonishing.  One  boring  through  blue  marl  and  lime 
stone  at  Erie,  in  Greene  County,  was  469  feet  deep,  and  the  well 
yielded  350  gallons  of  water  per  minute  at  the  surface.  The 
water  rises  forty  feet  above  the  surface,  and  can  be  made  to  reach 
fifty  feet,  though  in  diminished  quantity.  Here,  as  in  Europe, 
the  temperature  of  the  earth's  crust  is  found  to  increase  as  we 
descend,  the  water  being  sensibly  warmer  than  that  of  the  air,  so 
much  so  that  in  cold  weather  it  sends  forth  steam.  Each  new 
excavation  at  Erie  robs  the  wells  previously  bored  of  part  of 
their  supply.  The  auger  with  which  they  perforate  the  soil  is 
four  inches  in  diameter,  and  the  average  cost  of  excavation  sixty- 
two  cents,  or  about  2s.  6d.  per  foot,  for  the  whole  depth  of  469 
feet.  No  solid  rock  has  been  pierced  here,  the  strata  consisting 
throughout  of  soft,  horizontally  stratified  blue  limestone.  They 
have  also  pierced  these  same  rocks,  at  a  distance  of  three  miles 
from.  Demopolis  (a  town  situated  at  the  junction  of  the  Tom- 
beckbee  and  Black  Warrior  rivers),  to  the  depth  of  930  feet 
without  gaining  the  water,  yet  they  do  not  despair  of  success,  as 
sand  has  just  been  reached. 

At  Arcola,  the  proprietor  presented  me  with  several  creta 
ceous  fossils,  and  some  irregular  tubular  bodies,  the  origin  of 
which  he  wished  to  have  explained.  I  immediately  recognized 
them  as  identical  with  the  vitreous  tubes  found  at  Drigg,  in  Cum 
berland,  in  hills  of  shifting  sand,  which  have  been  described  and 
figured  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Geological  Society  of  London.* 
They  have  a  glazed  and  vitrified  interior,  and  bodies  of  similar 
form  and  structure  were  first  supposed  by  Saussure  to  have  been 
due  to  the  passage  of  lightning  through  sand,  a  theory  now  gen 
erally  adopted. 

If  any  geologist  retains  to  this  day  the  doctrine  once  so  popu 
lar,  that  at  remote  periods  marine  deposits  of  contemporaneous 
origin  were  formed  every  where  throughout  the  globe  with  the 
same  mineral  characters,  he  would  do  well  to  compare  the  suc- 
#  Vol.  ii.  p.  528,  and  vol.  v.  p.  617,  1st  series. 


CHAP.  XXV.]  BLUFF  OF  ST.  STEPHEN'S.  77 

cession  of  rocks  on  the  Alabama  River  with  those  of  the  same 
date  in  England.  If  there  were  no  fossils,  he  might  suppose  the 
lower  cretaceous  beds  of  loose  gravel  to  be  the  newest  tertiary, 
the  main  body  of  the  chalk  to  be  lias,  and  the  soft  limestone  of 
St.  Stephen's,  which  is  tertiary,  to  be  the  representative  of  chalk. 
When  I  arrived  at  the  last-mentioned  rock,  or  the  white  calca 
reous  bluff  of  St.  Stephen's,  it  was  quite  dark,  but  Captain 
Lavargy,  who  commanded  the  vessel,  was  determined  I  should 
not  be  disappointed.  He  therefore  said  he  would  stop  and  take 
in  a  supply  of  wood  at  the  place,  and  gave  me  a  boat,  with  two 
negroes  amply  provided  with  torches  of  pine  wood,  which  gave  so 
much  light  that  I  was  able  to  explore  the  cliff  from  one  end  to 
the  other,  and  to  collect  many  fossils.  The  bluff  was  more  than 
100  feet  high,  and  in  parts  formed  of  an  aggregate  of  corals 
resembling  nummulites,  but  called,  by  A.  D'Orbigny.  orbitoides. 

I  had  seen  the  same  "  orbitoidal"  limestone  in  the  interior  of 
Clarke  County,  forming  knolls,  on  which  many  cedars  or  junipers 
were  growing,  reminding  me  greatly  of  parts  of  the  English  South 
Downs,  covered  with  yew  trees  or  juniper,  where  the  pure  cal 
careous  soil  of  the  chalk  reaches  the  surface. 

When  I  looked  down  from  the  top  of  the  precipice  at  St.  Ste 
phen's,  the  scene  which  presented  itself  was  most  picturesque. 
Near  us  was  the  great  steamboat,  throwing  off  a  dense  column 
of  white  vapor,  and  an  active  body  of  negroes  throwing  logs  on 
board  by  torch-light.  One  of  my  companions  had  clambered 
with  me,  torch  in  hand,  to  the  top  of  the  bluff;  the  other  was 
amusing  himself  in  the  boat  below  by  holding  another  blazing 
torch  under  large  festoons  of  Spanish  moss,  which  hung  from  the 
boughs  of  a  huge  plane  tree.  These  mossy  streamers  had  at 
length  been  so  dried  up  by  the  heat,  that  they  took  fire,  and  add 
ed  to  the  brilliant  illumination.  My  fellow  passengers  were  asleep 
during  this  transaction,  but  congratulated  me  the  next  morning 
on  having  had  the  command  of  the  vessel  during  the  night. 

On  board  the  steamer  were  three  gentlemen  of  respectable 
families  and  good  standing  in  society,  who  had  been  ruined  by 
their  drunken  habits.  They  had  all  been  brought  up  to  the  bar, 
and  two  of  them  were  married.  One  had  become  quite  imbe- 


73  NEGRO  SHOT  BY  OVERSEER.  [CHAP.  XXV. 

cile  ;  and  I  saw  the  captain  and  clerk  interfere  to  prevent  him 
from  taking  more  spirits.  We  heard  many  lamentations  at  the 
prevalence  of  this  vice  in  Alabama,  and  were  told  of  a  skillful 
physician  who  had  lost  all  his  practice  by  giving  way  to  intem 
perance.  While  one  of  the  passengers  was  conversing  with  me 
on  this  subject,  he  called  my  attention  to  an  overseer  just  coming 
on  board,  who,  not  long  ago,  had  shot  a  negro,  a  ringleader  in  a 
conspiracy.  The  affair,  he  said,  had  not  reached  a  desperate 
point,  and  might  have  been  better  managed,  had  he  not  been  a 
passionate  man.  I  was  going  to  express  my  indignation  at  the 
idea  of  such  an  agent  continuing  to  be  intrusted  with  power, 
when  I  saw  him  approaching  us.  His  countenance  was  by  no 
means  prepossessing,  arid  I  involuntarily  withdrew.  To  my  sur 
prise,  my  companion,  whose  general  opinions  had  pleased  me 
much,  greeted  and  shook  hands  with  his  acquaintance  with  appa 
rent  cordiality. 

This  adventure,  and  my  meeting  with  the  slave-stealer  on 
board  the  "  General  Clinch,"  before  related,*  were  the  two  cases 
which  most  shocked  my  feelings  in  the  course  of  my  present,  tour 
in  Georgia  and  Alabama.  To  inquire  into  the  condition  of  the 
negroes,  and  the  evils  arising  out  of  the  relation  of  master  and 
slave,  was  not  the  object  of  my  visit ;  but  when  I  afterward 
related  to  an  abolitionist  in  Massachusetts,  how  little  actual  suf 
fering  had  obtruded  itself  on  my  notice,  he  told  me  that  great 
pains  must  have  been  taken  by  the  planters  to  conceal  from  me 
the  true  state  of  things,  while  they  had  taken  care  to  propitiate 
me  by  hospitable  attentions.  I  was  glad,  however,  to  find  my 
experience  borne  out  by  that  of  a  Scotch  weaver,  William  Thom 
son,  of  Stonehaven,  who  traveled  in  the  years  1841— 2  for  his 
health  in  the  southern  states.  He  supported  himself  as  he  went 
along  by  manual  labor,  and  lived  on  intimate  terms  with  persons 
of  a  different  class  of  society  from  those  with  whom  I  had  most 
intercourse.  On  his  return  home  he  published  a  small  book,  in 
which  he  says,  "  It  will  appear,  to  those  who  knew  my  opinions 
on  slavery  before  I  visited  America,  that,  like  most  others  who 
can  judge  dispassionately,  I  have  changed  my  opinion  consider- 
*  Ante,  vol.  i.  p.  232. 


CHAP.  XXV.]        SLAVERY  IN  SOUTHERN  STATES.  79 


ably."  He  gives  a  detailed  account  of  his  adventures  in  the  re 
gions  which  I  traversed  in  Alabama,  Georgia,  and  many  other 
states,  and  concludes  by  observing, — "  After  witnessing  negro 
slavery  in  mostly  all  the  slaveholding  states, — having  lived  for 
weeks  in  cotton  plantations,  observing  closely  the  actual  condition 
of  the  negroes, — I  can  assert,  without  fear  of  contradiction  from 
any  man  who  has  any  knowledge  of  the  subject,  that  I  have 
never  witnessed  one-fifth  of  the  real  suffering  that  I  have  seen  in 
manufacturing  establishments  in  Great  Britain."  In  reference  to 
another  topic,  he  affirms  "  that  the  members  of  the  same  family 
of  negroes  are  not  so  much  scattered  as  are  those  of  working  men 
in  Scotland,  whose  necessities  compel  them  to  separate  at  an  age 
when  the  American  slave  is  running  about  gathering  health  and 
strength."-* 

I  am  aware  that  there  is  some  danger,  when  one  hears  the 
philanthropist  declaiming  in  terms  of  gross  exaggeration  on  the 
horrors  of  slavery  and  the  crimes  of  the  planters,  of  being  tempted 
by  a  spirit  of  contradiction,  or  rather  by  a  love  of  justice,  to  coun 
teract  misrepresentation,  by  taking  too  favorable  a  view  of  the 
condition  and  prospects  of  the  negroes.  But  there  is  another 
reason,  also,  which  causes  the  traveler  in  the  south  to  moderate 
his  enthusiasm  for  emancipation.  He  is  forced  continually  to 
think  of  the  responsibility  which  would  be  incurred,  if  several 
millions  of  human  beings  were  hastily  set  aside,  like  so  many  ma 
chines,  by  withdrawing  from  them  suddenly  the  protection  afford 
ed  by  their  present  monopoly  of  labor.  In  the  opening  of  the 
market  freely  to  white  competitors,  before  the  race  is  more  im 
proved,  consists  their  danger. 

Yet,  on  taking  a  near  view  of  the  slave  question,  we  are  often 
thrown  into  opposite  states  of  mind  and  feeling,  according  as  the 
interests  of  the  white  or  negro  race  happen,  for  the  moment,  to 
claim  our  sympathy.  It  is  useless  now  to  look  back  and  wish, 
for  the  sake  of  civilization,  that  no  Africans  had  ever  crossed  the 
Atlantic.  Their  number  in  the  Union  now  exceeds  three  mill 
ions,  and,  as  they  have  doubled  in  the  last  twenty-five  years,  we 

*  Tradesman's  Travels  in  the  United  States,  &c.,  in  the  years  1840-42, 
p.  182. 


80  CIVILIZATION  OF  NEGROES.  [CHAP.  XXV. 

must  expect,  unless  some  plan  can  be  devised  to  check  their  in 
crease,  that  they  will  amount,  before  the  close  of  this  century,  to 
twelve  millions,  by  which  time  the  white  population  will  have 
augmented  to  eighty  millions.  Notwithstanding  this  increase  of 
negroes,  were  it  not  for  disturbing  causes,  to  which  I  shall  pres 
ently  advert,  I  should  cherish  the  most  sanguine  hopes  of  their 
future  improvement  and  emancipation,  and  even  their  ultimate 
amalgamation  and  fusion  with  the  whites,  so  highly  has  my  esti 
mate  of  their  moral  and  intellectual  capabilities  been  raised  by 
what  I  have  lately  seen  in  Georgia  and  Alabama.  Were  it  not 
for  impediments  which  white  competition  and  political  ascenden 
cy  threaten  to  throw  in  the  way  of  negro  progress,  the  grand  ex 
periment  might  be  fairly  tried,  of  civilizing  several  millions  of 
blacks,  not  by  philanthropists,  but  by  a  steadier  and  surer  agen 
cy — the  involuntary  efforts  of  several  millions  of  whites.  In  spite 
of  prejudice  and  fear,  and  in  defiance  of  stringent  laws  enacted 
against  education,  three  millions  of  a  more  enlightened  and  pro 
gressive  race  are  brought  into  contact  with  an  equal  number  of 
laborers  lately  in  a  savage  state,  and  taken  from  a  continent 
where  the  natives  have  proved  themselves,  for  many  thousand 
years,  to  be  singularly  unprogressive.  Already  their  task-mas 
ters  have  taught  them  to  speak,  with  more  or  less  accuracy,  one 
of  the  noblest  of  languages,  to  shake  off  many  old  superstitions,  to 
acquire  higher  ideas  of  morality,  and  habits  of  neatness  and  clean 
liness,  and  have  converted  thousands  of  them  to  Christianity. 
Many  they  have  emancipated,  and  the  rest  are  gradually  ap 
proaching  to  the  condition  of  the  ancient  serfs  of  Europe  half  a 
century  or  more  before  their  bondage  died  out. 

All  this  has  been  done  at  an  enormous  sacrifice  of  time  and 
money  ;  an  expense,  indeed,  which  all  the  governments  of  Eu 
rope  and  all  the  Christian  missionaries,  whether  Romanist  or 
Protestant,  could  never  have  effected  in  five  centuries.  Even  in 
the  few  states  which  I  have  already  visited  since  I  crossed  the 
Potomac,  several  hundred  thousand  whites  of  all  ages,  among 
whom  the  children  are  playing  by  no  means  the  least  effective 
part,  are  devoting  themselves  with  greater  or  lesd  activity  to  these 
involuntary  educational  exertions. 


CHAP.  XXV.]     LAW  AGAINST  BLACK  MECHANICS.  81 

It  had  previously  been  imagined  that  an  impassable  gulf 
separated  the  two  races  ;  but  now  it  is  proved  that  more  than 
half  that  space  can,  in  a  few  generations,  be  successfully  passed 
over,  and  the  humble  negro  of  the  coast  of  Guinea  has  shown 
himself  to  be  one  of  the  most  imitative  and  improvable  of  human 
beings.  Yet  the  experiment  may  still  be  defeated,  not  so  much 
by  the  fanaticism  of  abolitionists,  or  the  prejudices  of  those  slave^ 
owners  who  are  called  perpetualists,  who  maintain  that  slavery 
should  be  permanent,  and  that  it  is  a  blessing  in  itself  to  the  negro, 
but  by  the  jealousy  of  an  unscrupulous  democracy  invested  with 
political  power.  Of  the  imminent  nature  of  this  peril,  I  was  never 
fully  aware,  until  I  was  startled  by  the  publication  of  an  act 
passed  by  the  Legislature  of  Georgia  during  my  visit  to  that 
state,  December  27th,  1845.  The  following  is  the  preamble 
and  one  of  the  clauses  : — 

"  An  act  to  prohibit  colored  mechanics  and  masons,  being 
slaves,  or  free  persons  of  color,  being  mechanics  or  masons,  from 
making  contracts  for  the  erection  of  buildings,  or  for  the  repair 
of  buildings,  and  declaring  the  white  person  or  persons  directly 
or  indirectly  contracting  with  or  employing  them,  as  well  as  the 
master,  employer,  manager,  or  agent  for  said  slave,  or  guardian 
for  said  free  person  of  color,  authorizing  or  permitting  the  same, 
guilty  of  a  misdemeanor,"  and  prescribing  punishment  for  the 
violation  of  this  act. 

"Section  1. — Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of 
Representatives  of  the  State  of  Georgia  in  General  Assembly 
met,  and  it  is  hereby  enacted  by  the  authority  of  the  same,  That 
from  and  after  the  1st  day  of  February  next,  each  and  every 
white  person  who  shall  hereafter  contract  or  bargain  with  any 
slave,  mechanic,  or  mason,  or  free  person  of  color,  being  a 
mechanic  or  mason,  shall  be  liable  to  be  indicted  for  a  mis 
demeanor  ;  and,  on  conviction,  to  be  fined,  at  the  discretion  of  the 
Court,  not  exceeding  two  hundred  dollars." 

Then  follows  another  clause  imposing  the  like  penalties  on  the 
owners  of  slaves,  or  guardians  of  free  persons  of  color,  who  au 
thorize  the  contracts  prohibited  by  this  statute. 

I  may  first  observe,  in  regard  to  this  disgraceful  law,  which 

D* 


82  DEGRADED  POSITION  OF  NEGROES.      [CHAP.  XXV, 

was  only  carried  by  a  small  majority  in  the  Georgian  Legislature, 
that  it  proves  that  not  a  few  of  the  negro  race  have  got  on  so 
well  in  the  world  in  reputation  and  fortune,  and  in  skill  in  certain 
arts,  that  it  was  worth  while  to  legislate  against  them  in  order 
to  keep  them  down,  and  prevent  them  from  entering  into  success 
ful  rivalry  with  the  whites.  It  confirms,  therefore,  most  fully  the 
impression  which  all  I  saw  in  Georgia  had  left  on  my  mind,  that 
the  blacks  are  steadily  rising  in  social  importance  in  spite  of  slavery  ; 
or,  to  speak  more  correctly,  by  aid  of  that  institution,  assuming, 
as  it  does,  in  proportion  as  the  whites  become  civilized,  a  more 
and  more  mitigated  form.  In  the  next  place  I  shall  endeavor  to 
explain  to  the  English  reader  the  real  meaning  of  so  extraordinary 
a  decree.  Mr.  R.  H.  Wilde,  formerly  senator  for  Georgia,  told  me 
that  he  once  knew  a  colored  freeman  who  had  been  brought  up  as  a 
saddler,  and  was  a  good  workman.  To  his  surprise  he  found  him 
one  day  at  Saratoga,  in  the  State  of  New  York,  acting  as  servant  at 
an  hotel.  "  Could  you  not  get  higher  wages,"  he  inquired,  "  as  a 
saddler  ?"  "  Yes,"  answered  he  ;  "  but  no  sooner  was  I  engaged  by 
a  <  boss,'  than  all  the  other  workmen  quitted."  They  did  so,  not  be 
cause  he  was  a  slave,  for  he  had  long  been  emancipated,  but  because 
he  was  a  negro.  It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  it  requires  in  Georgia 
the  force  of  a  positive  statute  to  deprive  the  negro,  whether  he  be  a 
freeman  or  slave,  of  those  advantages  from  which,  in  a  free  state  like 
New  York,  he  is  excluded,  without  any  legislative  interference. 

I  have  heard  apologists  in  the  north  endeavoring  to  account  for 
the  degraded  position  which  the  negroes  hold,  socially  and  polit 
ically,  in  the  free  states,  by  saying  they  belong  to  a  race  which  is 
kept  in  a  state  of  slavery  in  the  south.  But,  if  they  really  desired 
to  accelerate  emancipation,  they  would  begin  by  setting  an  example 
to  the  southern  states,  and  treating  the  black  race  with  more 
respect  and  more  on  a  footing  of  equality.  I  once  heard  some 
Irish  workmen  complain  in  New  York,  "  that  the  ni'ggers  shut 
them  out  from  all  the  easiest  ways  of  getting  a  livelihood  ;"  arid 
many  white  mechanics,  who  had  emigrated  from  the  north  to  the 
slave  states,  declared  to  me  that  every  opening  in  their  trades  was 
closed  to  them,  because  black  artisans  were  employed  by  their 
owners  in  preference.  Hence,  they  are  now  using  in  Georgia  the 


CHAP.  XXV.]     EFFECTS  OF  IMMEDIATE  EMANCIPATION.  83 

power  given  to  them  by  an  exclusive  franchise,  to  pass  disabling1 
statutes  against  the  blacks,  to  prevent  them  from  engaging  in 
certain  kinds  of  work.  In  several  states,  Virginia  among  others, 
I  heard  of  strikes,  where  the  white  workmen  bound  themselves 
not  to  return  to  their  employment  until  the  master  had  discharged 
all  his  colored  people.  Such  combinations  will,  no  doubt,  forward 
the  substitution  of  white  for  negro  labor,  and  may  hasten  the  era 
of  general  emancipation.  But  if  this  measure  be  prematurely 
adopted,  the  negroes  are  a  doomed  race,  and  already  their  situa 
tion  is  most  critical.  I  found  a  deep  conviction  prevailing  in  the 
minds  of  experienced  slave-owners,  of  the  injury  which  threatened 
them  ;  and,  more  than  once,  in  Kentucky  and  elsewhere,  in  an 
swer  to  my  suggestions,  that  the  time  for  introducing  free  labor 
had  come,  they  said,  "  I  think  so  ;  we  must  get  rid  of  the  negroes." 
"Do  you  not  think,"  said  I,  "if  you  could  send  them  all  away, 
that  some  parts  of  the  country  would  be  depopulated,  seeing  how 
unhealthy  the  low  grounds  are  for  the  whites  ?"  "  Perhaps  so," 
replied  one  planter,  "  but  other  regions  would  become  more  pro 
ductive  by  way  of  compensation  ;  the  insalubrity  of  the  Pontine 
marshes  would  be  no  excuse  for  negro  slavery  in  Italy.  All  might 
end  well,"  he  added,  "were  it  not  that  so  many  anti-slavery  men 
in  the  north  are  as  precipitate  and  impatient  as  if  they  believed, 
like  the  Milleritcs,  that  the  world  was  coming  to  an  end." 

One  of  the  most  reasonable  advocates  of  immediate  emancipa 
tion  whom  I  met  with  in  the  north,  said  to  rne,  "  You  are  like 
many  of  our  politicians,  who  can  look  on  one  side  only  of  a  great 
question.  Grant  the  possibility  of  these  three  millions  of  colored 
people,  or  even  twelve  millions  of  them  fifty  years  hence,  being 
capable  of  amalgamating  with  the  whites,  such  a  result  might  be 
to  you  perhaps,  as  a  philanthropist  or  physiologist,  a  very  inter 
esting  experiment ;  but  would  not  the  progress  of  the  whites  be 
retarded,  and  our  race  deteriorated,  nearly  in  the  same  proportion 
as  the  negroes  would  gain  ?  Why  not  consider  the  interests  of  the 
white  race  by  hastening  the  abolition  of  slavery.  The  whites  con 
stitute  nearly  six-sevenths  of  our  whole  population.  As  a  philan 
thropist,  you  arc  bound  to  look  to  the  greatest  good  of  the  two  races 
collectively,  or  the  advantage  of  the  whole  population  of  the  Union." 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

"Return  to  Mobile. — Excursion  to  the  Shores  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. — View 
from  Lighthouse.  —  Mouth  of  Alabama  River.  —  Gnathodon  inhabiting 
Brackish  Water. — Banks  of  these  Fossil  Shells  far  Inland. — Miring  of 
Cattle. — Yellow  Fever  at  Mobile  in  1839. — Fire  in  same  Year. — Voyage 
from  Mobile  to  New  Orleans. — Movers  to  Texas. — Lake  Pontchartrain. — 
Arrival  at  New  Orleans. — St.  Louis  Hotel. — French  Aspect  of  City. — 
Carnival. — Procession  of  Masks. 

Feb.  21,  1846. — THERE  had  been  some  very  cold  weather  in 
the  beginning  of  the  month  in  the  upper  country,  the  thermometer 
at  Tuscaloosa  having  been  down  as  low  as  17°  Fahr.  ;  yet,  on 
our  return  to  Mobile,  we  saw  the  signs  of  approaching  spring,  for 
on  the  banks  of  the  Alabama  river  the  deciduous  cypress  and 
cotton  trees  were  putting  out  their  leaves,  and  the  beautiful 
scarlet  seed-vessels  of  the  red  maple  (Acer  Drummondii)  enliv 
ened  the  woods. 

Once  more  at  Mobile,  I  was  impatient  to  see,  for  the  first 
time,  the  shores  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  therefore  lost  no  time 
in  making  an  excursion  to  the  mouth  of  the  Alabama  River.  I 
was  fortunate  in  having  as  my  companion  the  Rev.  Dr.  Hamilton, 
minister  of  the  principal  Presbyterian  congregation,  who  was  well 
acquainted  with  the  natural  history  of  this  region.  He  drove  me 
first  to  the  lighthouse,  where,  from  the  top  of  the  tower,  we  had 
a  splendid  view  of  the  city  to  the  north,  and  to  the  south  the 
noble  bay  of  Mobile,  fourteen  miles  across.  The  keeper  of  the 
lighthouse  looked  sickly,  which  is  not  surprising,  as  he  is  living 
in  a  swamp  in  this  region  of  malaria.  It  was  his  first  year  of 
residence,  and  the  second  year  is  said  to  be  most  trying  to  the 
constitution.  The  women,  however,  of  his  family,  seemed  healthy 
We  then  went  to  the  sea-side,  two  miles  to  the  eastward,  and 
found  the  waters  of  the  bay  smooth  and  unrippled,  like  an  ex 
tensive  lake,  the  woods  coming  down  every  where  to  its  edge,  and 
the  live  oaks  and  long-leaved  pines,  with  the  buck-eye  and  several 


CHAP.  XXVI.]  VIEW  FROM  LIGHTHOUSE.  85 

other  trees  just  beginning  to  put  forth  their  young  leaves.  As  the 
most  northern  countries  I  had  visited  in  Europe — Norway  and 
Sweden — were  characterized  by  fir  trees  mingled  with  birch,  I 
was  surprised  to  find  the  most  southern  spot  I  had  yet  seen,  a 
plain  only  a  few  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  almost  equally 
characterized  by  a  predominance  of  pines.  On  the  ground  I  ob 
served  a  species  of  cactus,  about  one  foot  high,  and  the  marshy 
spots  were  covered  with  the  candleberry  (My-rica  carolinensis), 
resembling  the  species  so  common  in  the  north,  in  the  scent  of 
its  aromatic  leaves,  but  thrice  as  high  as  I  had  seen  it  before. 
The  most  common  plant  in  flower  was  the  English  chickweed 
(Cerastium  vulgare),  a  truly  cosmopolite  species. 

A  prodigious  quantity  of  drift  timber,  of  all  sizes,  and  in  every 
stage  of  decomposition,  lay  stranded  far  and  wide  along  the  shore. 
Many  of  the  trunks  of  the  trees  had  been  floated  a  thousand  miles 
and  more  down  the  Mississippi  and  its  tributaries,  and,  after  escaping 
by  one  of  the  many  mouths  of  the  great  river,  had  drifted  one  hun 
dred  and  fifty  miles  eastward  to  this  spot.  The  fact  of  their  long 
immersion  in  salt  water  was  sometimes  proved  by  a  dense  coat  of 
encrusting  barnacles,  the  only  marine  shells  we  could  find  here, 
for  the  mollusks  proper  to  this  part  of  the  bay  are  such  as  belong 
to  fresh  or  brackish  water,  of  the  genera  Cyrena,  Gnathodon,  and 
Neritina.  Just  before  our  visit,  a  north  wind  had  been  blowing 
and  driving  back  the  sea  water  for  some  days,  and  the  bay  was 
so  freshened  by  the  Alabama  River  pouring  in  at  this  season  a  full 
stream,  that  I  could  detect  no  brackish  taste  in  the  water.  It 
is,  in  fact,  so  sweet  here,  that  ships  often  resort  to  the  spot  to 
take  in  water.  Yet  there  is  a  regular  tide  rising  three  feet  every 
six  hours,  and,  when  the  wind  blows  from  the  south,  the  waters 
are  raised  six  or  seven  feet. 

After  walking  over  a  large  expanse  of  ripple-marked  sands,  we 
came  to  banks  of  mud,  inhabited  by  the  bivalve  shell  called 
Gnathodon,  some  of  which  we  dug  up  alive  from  a  depth  of 
about  two  inches  from  the  surface.  This  part  of  the  bay  of  Mobile 
is  now  the  most  northern  locality  of  this  remarkable  brackish-water 
genus,  but  dead  shells  of  the  same  species  are  traced  many  miles 
inland,  forming  banks  three  or  four  feet  thick.  They  are  called 


86  BANKS  OF  FOSSIL  SHELLS.  [CHAP.  XXVI. 

clams  hero  in  popular  language,  and,  being  thick  and  strong, 
afford  a  good  material  for  road-making.  From  the  same  mud- 
bank  we  dug  out  a  species  of  Cyrena,  the  only  accompanying  shell. 
In  some  places  riot  far  off,  a  Neritina  is  also  met  with.  As  a 
geologist,  I  was  much  interested  by  observing  the  manner  in 
which  these  shells  were  living  in  the  mud  of  the  delta  of  the 
Alabama  River.  The  deposits  formed  by  the  advance  of  this  arid 
other  deltas  along  the  northern  shores  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  will 
be  hereafter  characterized  by  such  shells  in  a  fossil  state,  just  as, 
in  the  Pampas,  Mr.  Darwin  and  M.  A.  D'Orbigny  found  the 
brackish-water  shell,  called  Azara  labiat.a,  marking  far  inland 
the  position  of  ancient  estuaries.  Arid  as,  in  South  America, 
"  the  Pampean  mud,"  described  by  Mr.  Darwin,*  is  filled  with 
the  skeletons  of  the  extinct  Megatherium,  Toxodon,  arid  other 
strange  mammalia,  so  in  the  modern  delta  of  the  Alabama,  the 
quadrupeds  now  inhabiting  the  southern  shores  of  the  United 
States  will  hereafter  be  met  with  buried  in  the  same  assemblage 
of  deposits  of  rnud  and  sand  as  the  Gn&thodon.  I  was  told  that 
in  a  great  morass  which  we  saw  near  the  lighthouse  some  cattle 
had  lately  perished,  arid  for  many  days  the  turkey  buzzards  have 
been  snatching  parts  of  the  dead  carcasses  out  of  the  mud,  watch 
ing  their  opportunity  the  moment  the  dogs,  which  are  also  preying 
on  them,  retire.  Formerly  the  wolves  used  to  prowl  about  these 
swamps  in  search  of  similar  booty,  tearing  up  portions  of  the 
mired  cattle,  arid  in  this  manner  we  may  expect  that,  while 
sonic  skeletons,  which  have  sunk  deep  into  the  softer  mud,  may 
be  preserved  entire,  the  bones  of  others  will  be  scattered  about 
where  the  wolves  have  gnawed  thorn,  or  birds  of  prey  have  picked 
oil'  the  flesh. 

On  our  way  back  to  the  town,  at  places  a  mile  and  a  half 
from  the  sea,  I  examined  some  large  banks  of  fossil  shells  of  the 
G-'tuitkodon,  lying  as  if  they  had  been  washed  up  by  the  waves 
at  a  time  when  the  coast-line  extended  only  thus  far  south.  I 
also  found  that  the  city  of  Mobile  itself  was  built  upon  a  similar 
bed  of  shells,  in  which  no  specimens  of  the  Neritina  occurred  ; 
but  I  was  told  by  Mr.  Hale,  that  he  has  met  with  them  in  banks 
*  Geolog.  Ohs.  on  S.  America  (1846),  p.  99. 


CHAP.  XXVI.]  YELLOW  FEVER.  87 

much  farther  in  the  interior,  and,  as  he  truly  remarked,  they 
refute  the  theory  which  would  refer  such  accumulations  to  the 
Indians,  who,  it  is  well  known,  were  accustomed  to  feed  on  the 
Gnatkodon.  The  distinct  stratification  seen  in  some  of  the 
heaps  of  shells  and  sand  at  Mobile,  also  satisfied  me  that  they 
were  thrown  up  by  the  action  of  water.  Mr.  Hale  gave  me  a 
map,  in  which  he  had  laid  down  the  localities  of  these  beds  of 
fossil  Gnatliodon,  some  of  which  he  has  traced  as  far  as  twenty 
miles  into  the  interior,  the  accumulations  increasing1  in  thickness 
in  the  most  elevated  and  inland  situations,  and  containing1  there 
an  intermixture  of  the  Neritince  with  the  Cyrena,  which  last 
seems  only  to  occur  in  the  recent  banks  of  mud  and  sand.  Mr. 
Hale  observes,  "  that  the  inland  heaps  of  shells  often  rise  so  far 
above  the  level  of  the  highest  tides,  that  it  seems  difficult  to  ac 
count  for  their  position  simply  by  the  advance  of  the  delta,  and 
without  supposing  that  there  has  been  a  slight  upheaval  of  the 
land." 

In  the  gardens  at  Mobile  there  were  jonquils  arid  snowdrops 
in  flower,  and,  for  the  first  time,  we  saw  that  beautiful  evergreen, 
the  yellow  jessamine  (Gehcmium  sempervirens),  in  full  bloom, 
trailed  along  the  wall  of  Dr.  Hamilton's  house.  Its  fragrance 
is  delicious,  more  like  that  of  our  bind- weed  than  any  other  scent 
I  could  remember.  It  had  not  been  injured  by  the  late  frost, 
although  the  thermometer  at  Mobile  had  been  eight  degrees  below 
the  freezing  point. 

The  citizens  are  beginning  to  flatter  themselves  that  the  yel 
low  fever  has  worn  itself  out  at  Mobile,  because  the  hot  season 
of  1845  was  so  healthy  both  here  and  at  New  Orleans.  Some 
medical  men,  indeed,  confessed  to  me,  that  as  the  wind  blew  ibr 
many  weeks  from  the  north,  passing  over  the  marshes  north  of 
the  city  during  the  summer,  without  giving  rise  to  the  usual  epi 
demic,  all  their  former  theories  as  to  the  origin  of  the  pestilence 
have  been  refuted.  It  may  still  hold  true,  that  to  induce  the 
disease,  three  causes  must  concur,  namely,  heat,  a  moist  ground, 
and  a  decaying  vegetation  ;  but  it  seems  clear  that  all  these  may 
be  present  in  their  fullest  intensity,  and  yet  prove  quite  innocuous. 
The  dangerous  months  are  July,  August,  and  September,  and 


88  FIRE  AT  MOBILE.  [CHAP.  XXVI. 

great  is  the  anxiety  of  those  who  then  remain  in  the  city.  It  is 
fearful  to  witness  the  struggle  between  the  love  of  gain,  tempting 
the  merchant  to  continue  at  his  post,  and  the  terror  of  the  plague, 
which  causes  him  to  stand  always  prepared  for  sudden  flight. 
In  1839,  such  was  the  dismay,  that  only  3000  out  of  a  popula 
tion  of  16,000  tarried  behind  in  the  city.  Dr.  Hamilton,  one 
of  those  who  staid,  told  me  that  he  knew  not  a  single  family,  a 
member  of  which  was  not  attacked  by  the  disease.  Out  of  the 
3000,  800  died.  All  the  clergy  remained  faithful  to  their  duties, 
and  many  of  them  perished. 

The  yellow  fever  is  not  the  only  scourge  which  has  frequently 
devastated  Mobile.  I  found  it  slowly  recovering,  like  so  many 
other  American  cities,  from  the  ravages  of  a  great  fire,  which,  in 
1839,  laid  the  greater  part  of  it  in  ashes.  The  fire  broke  out 
in  so  many  places  at  once,  as  to  give  too  much  reason  to  suspect 
that  it  was  the  work  of  incendiaries  seeking  plunder. 

Feb.  23. — The  distance  from  Mobile  to  New  Orleans  is  175 
miles  by  what  is  called  the  inland  passage,  or  the  channel  be 
tween  the  islands  and  the  main  land.  We  paid  five  dollars,  or 
one  guinea  each,  for  berths  in  the  "  James  L.  Day"  steamer, 
which  made  about  nine  miles  an  hour.  Being  on  the  low  pres 
sure  principle,  she  was  so  free  from  noise  and  vibration,  that  we 
could  scarcely  believe  we  were  not  in  a  sailing  vessel.  The 
stunning  sounds  and  tremulous  motions  of  the  boats  on  the  south 
ern  rivers  are  at  first  so  distracting,  that  I  often  wondered  we 
could  sleep  soundly  in  them.  The  "  James  L.  Day"  is  185  feet 
long,  drawing  now  five  and  a  half  feet  water,  and  only  seven  feet 
when  fully  freighted.  We  sailed  out  of  the  beautiful  bay  of 
Mobile  in  the  evening,  in  the  coldest  month  of  the  year,  yet  the 
air  was  warm,  and  there  was  a  haze  like  that  of  a  summer's 
evening  in  England.  Many  gulls  followed  our  ship,  enticed  by 
pieces  of  bread  thrown  out  to  them  by  the  passengers,  some  of 
whom  were  displaying  their  skill  in  shooting  the  birds  in  mere 
wantonness.  The  stars  were  brilliant  as  the  night  came  on,  and 
we  passed  between  the  islands  and  main  land,  where  the  sea  was 
as  smooth  as  a  lake. 

On  board  were  many  "  movers,"  going  to  Texas  with  their 


CHAP.  XXVI.]  MOVERS  TO  TEXAS. 


slaves.  One  of  them  confessed  to  me,  that  he  had  been  eaten 
out  of  Alabama  by  his  negroes.  He  had  no  idea  where  he  was 
going,  but  after  settling  his  family  at  Houston,  he  said  he  should 
look  out  for  a  square  league  of  good  land  to  be  had  cheap. 
Another  passenger  had,  a  few  weeks  before,  returned  from  Texas, 
much  disappointed,  and  was  holding  forth  in  disparagement  of 
the  country  for  its  want  of  wood  and  water,  declaring  that  none 
could  thrive  there,  unless  they  carne  from  the  prairies  of  Illinois, 
and  were  inured  to  such  privations.  "  Cotton,"  he  said,  "  could 
only  be  raised  on  a  few  narrow  strips  of  alluvial  land  near  the 
rivers,  and  as  these  were  not  navigable  by  steamers,  the  crop, 
when  raised,  could  not  be  carried  to  a  market."  He  also  com 
forted  the  mover  with  the  assurance,  "  that  there  were  swarms 
of  buffalo  flies  to  torment  his  horses,  and  sand  flies  to  sting  him 
and  his  family."  To  this  the  undismayed  emigrant  replied, 
"  that  when  he  first  settled  in  Alabama,  before  the  long  grass 
and  canes  had  been  eaten  down  by  his  cattle,  the  insect  pests 
were  as  great  as  they  could  be  in  Texas."  He  was,  I  found, 
one  of  those  resolute  pioneers  of  the  wilderness,  who,  after  build 
ing  a  log-house,  clearing  the  forest,  and  improving  some  hundred 
acres  of  wild  ground  by  years  of  labor,  sells  the  farm,  and  mi 
grates  again  to  another  part  of  the  uncleared  forest,  repeating 
this  operation  three  or  four  times  in  the  course  of  his  life,  and, 
though  constantly  growing  richer,  never  disposed  to  take  his  ease. 
In  pursuing  this  singular  vocation,  they  who  go  southward  from 
Virginia  to  North  and  South  Carolina,  and  thence  to  Georgia 
and  Alabama,  follow,  as  if  by  instinct,  the  corresponding  zones 
of  country.  The  inhabitants  of  the  red  soil  of  the  granitic  region 
keep  to  their  oak  and  hickory,  the  "crackers"  of  the  tertiary  pine- 
barrens  to  their  light-wood,  and  they  of  the  newest  geological 
formations  in  the  sea-islands  to  their  fish  and  oysters.  On  reaching 
Texas,  they  are  all  of  them  at  fault,  which  will  surprise  no  geologist 
who  has  read  Ferdinand  R,oemer's  account  of  the  form  which  the 
cretaceous  strata  assume  in  that  country,  consisting  of  a  hard, 
compact,  siliceous  limestone,  which  defies  the  decomposing  action 
of  the  atmosphere,  and  forms  table-lands  of  bare  rock,  so  entirely 
unlike  the  marls,  clay,  and  sands  of  the  same  age  in  Alabama. 


90  LAKE  PONTCHARTRAIN.  [CHAP.  XXVI. 

On  going  down  from  the  cabin  to  the  lower  deck,  I  found 
a  slave-dealer  with  sixteen  negroes  to  sell,  most  of  them  Vir 
ginians.  I  heard  him  decline  an  offer  of  500  dollars  for  one  of 
them,  a  price  which  he  said  he  could  have  got  for  the  man  be 
fore  he  left  his  own  state. 

Next  morning  at  daylight  we  found  ourselves  in  Louisiana. 
We  had  already  entered  the  large  lagoon,  called  Lake  Pontchar- 
train,  by  a  narrow  passage,  and,  having  skirted  its  southern 
shore,  had  reached  a  point  six  miles  north  of  New  Orleans. 
Here  we  disembarked,  and  entered  the  cars  of  a  railway  built  on 
piles,  which  conveyed  us  in  less  than  an  hour  to  the  great  city, 
passing  over  swamps  in  which  the  tall  cypress,  hung  with  Span 
ish  moss,  was  flourishing,  and  below  it  numerous  shrubs  just 
bursting  into  leaf.  In  many  gardens  of  the  suburbs,  the  almond 
and  peach  trees  were  in  full  blossom.  In  some  places  the  blue- 
leaved  palmetto,  and  the  leaves  of  a  species  of  iris  (Iris  cuprea), 
were  very  abundant.  We  saw  a  tavern  called  the  "  Elysian 
Fields  Coffee  House,"  and  some  others  with  French  inscriptions. 
There  were  also  many  houses  with  porte-cocheres,  high  roofs, 
and  volets,  and  many  lamps  suspended  from  ropes  attached  to 
tall  posts  on  each  side  of  the  road,  as  in  the  French  capital. 
We  might  indeed  have  fancied  that  we  were  approaching  Paris, 
but  for  the  negroes  and  mulattoes.  and  the  large  verandahs  remind 
ing  us  that  the  windows  required  protection  from  the  sun's  heat. 

It  was  a  pleasure  to  hear  the  French  language  spoken,  and  to 
have  our  thoughts  recalled  to  the  most  civilized  parts  of  Europe 
by  the  aspect  of  a  city,  forming  so  great  a  contrast  to  the  innu 
merable  new  towns  we  had  lately  beheld.  The  foreign  appear 
ance,  moreover,  of  the  inhabitants,  made  me  feel  thankful  that 
it  was  possible  to  roam  freely  and  without  hindrance  over  so 
large  a  continent, — no  bureaus  for  examining  and  signing  of 
passports,  no  fortifications,  no  drawbridges,  no  closing  of  gates  at 
a  fixed  hour  in  the  evening,  no  waiting  till  they  are  opened  in 
the  morning,  no  custom-houses  separating  one  state  from  another, 
no  overhauling  of  baggage  by  gens  d'armes  for  the  octroi  ;  and  yet 
as  perfect  a  feeling  of  personal  security  as  I  ever  felt  in  Germany 
or  France. 


CHAP.  XXVI. J  NEW  ORLEANS.  91 

The  largest  of  the  hotels,  the  St.  Charles,  being  fuL,  we  ob 
tained  agreeable  apartments  at  the  St.  Louis,  in  a  part  of  the 
town  where  we  heard  French  constantly  spoken.  Our  rooms 
were  fitted  up  in  the  French  style,  with  muslin  curtains  and 
scarlet  draperies.  There  was  a  finely-proportioned  drawing- 
room,  furnished  a  la  Louis  Quatorze,  opening  into  a  large  dining- 
room  with  sliding  doors,  where  the  boarders  and  the  "  transient 
visitors,"  as  they  are  called  in  the  United  States,  met  at  meals. 
The  mistress  of  the  hotel,  a  widow,  presided  at  dinner,  and  we 
talked  French  with  her  and  some  of  the  attendants  ;  but  most 
of  the  servants  of  the  house  were  Trish  or  German.  There  was 
a  beautiful  ball-room,  in  which  preparations  were  making  for  a 
grand  masked  ball,  to  be  given  the  night  after  our  arrival. 

It  was  the  last  day  of  the  Carnival.  From  the  time  we 
landed  in  New  England  to  this  hour,  we  seemed  to  have  been 
in  a  country  where  all,  whether  rich  or  poor,  were  laboring  from 
morning  till  night,  without  ever  indulging  in  a  holiday.  I  had 
sometimes  thought  that  the  national  motto  should  be,  "  All  work 
and  no  play."  It  was  quite  a  novelty  and  a  refreshing  sight  to 
see  a  whole  population  giving  up  their  minds  for  a  short  season 
to  amusement.  There  was  a  grand  procession  parading  the 
streets,  almost  every  one  dressed  in  the  most  grotesque  attire, 
troops  of  them  on  horseback,  some  in  open  carriages,  with  bands 
of  music,  and  in  a  variety  of  costumes, — some  as  Indians,  with 
feathers  in  their  heads,  and  one,  a  jolly  fat  man,  as  Mardi  Gras 
himself.  All  wore  masks,  and  here  and  there  in  the  crowd,  or 
stationed  in  a  balcony  above,  we  saw  persons  armed  with  bags 
of  flour,  which  they  showered  down  copiously  on  any  one  who 
seemed  particularly  proud  of  his  attire.  The  strangeness  of  the 
scene  was  not  a  little  heightened  by  the  blending  of  negroes, 
quadroons,  and  mulattoes  in  the  crowd  ;  and  we  were  amused 
by  observing  the  ludicrous  surprise,  mixed  with  contempt,  of 
several  unmasked,  stiff,  grave  Anglo-Americans  from  the  north, 
who  were  witnessing  for  the  first  time  what  seemed  to  them  so 
much  mummery  and  torn-foolery.  One  wagoner,  coming  out  of 
a  cross  street,  in  his  working-dress,  drove  his  team  of  horses  and 
vehicle  heavily  laden  with  cotton  bales  right  through  the  proces- 


92  THE  CARNIVAL.  [CHAP.  XXVI. 

sion,  causing  a  long  interruption.  The  crowd  seemed  determined 
to  allow  nothing  to  disturb  their  good  humor ;  but  although 
many  of  the  wealthy  Protestant  citizens  take  part  in  the  cere 
mony,  this  rude  intrusion  struck  me  as  a  kind  of  foreshadowing 
of  coming  events,  emblematic  of  the  violent  shock  which  the  in 
vasion  of  the  Anglo-Americans  is  about  to  give  to  the  old  regime 
of  Louisiana.  A  gentleman  told  me  that,  being  last  year  in 
Rome,  he  had  not  seen  so  many  masks  at  the  Carnival  there  ; 
and,  in  spite  of  the  increase  of  Protestants,  he  thought  there  had 
been  quite  as  much  "  flour  and  fun"  this  year  as  usual.  The 
proportion,  however,  of  strict  Romanists  is  not  so  great  as  for 
merly,  and  to-morrow,  they  say,  when  Lent  begins,  there  will  be 
an  end  of  the  trade  in  masks  ;  yet  the  butchers  will  sell  nearly 
as  much  meat  as  ever.  During  the  Carnival,  the  greater  part 
of  the  French  population  keep  open  house,  especially  in  the 
country. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

Catholic  Cathedral,  New  Orleans. — French  Opera. — Creole  Ladies. — 
Quadroons. — Marriage  of  Whites  with  Quadroons. — St.  Charles  Theater. 
— English  Pronunciation. — Duelist's  Grave. — Ladies'  Ordinary. — Pro 
cession  of  Fire  Companies. — Boasted  Salubrity  of  New  Orleans. — Goods 
selling  at  Northern  Prices. — Mr.  Wilde.— Roman  Law. — Shifting  of 
Capital  to  Baton  Rouge. — Debates  in  Houses  of  Legislature. — Conven 
tion  and  Revision  of  the  Laws. — Policy  of  Periodical  State  Conventions. 
— Judges  cashiered. — Limitation  of  their  Term  of  Office. 

New  Orleans,  February,  1846. — WALKING  first  over  the 
most  ancient  part  of  the  city,  called  the  First  Municipality,  we 
entered  the  Place  d'  Armes,  and  saw  on  one  side  of  the  square  the 
old  Spanish  Government  House,  and  opposite  to  it  the  Cathedral, 
or  principal  Catholic  church,  both  in  an  antique  style  of  archi 
tecture,  and  therefore  strikingly  unlike  any  thing  we  had  seen  for 
many  months.  Entering  the  church,  which  is  always  open,  we 
found  persons  on  their  knees,  as  in  Catholic  countries,  although  it 
was  not  Sunday,  and  an  extremely  handsome  quadroon  woman 
coming  out. 

In  the  evening  we  went  to  the  French  Opera,  and  were  much 
pleased  with  the  performance,  the  orchestra  being  the  best  in 
America.  The  audience  were  very  quiet  and  orderly,  which  is 
said  not  to  be  always  the  case  in  some  theaters  here.  The 
French  creole  ladies,  many  of  them  descended  from  Norman  an 
cestors,  and  of  pure  unmixed  blood,  are  very  handsome.  They 
were  attired  in  Parisian  fashion,  not  over  dressed,  usually  not  so 
thin  as  the  generality  of  American  women  ;  their  luxuriant  hair 
tastefully  arranged,  fastened  with  ornamental  pins,  and  adorned 
simply  with  a  colored  ribbon  or  a  single  flower.  My  wife  learnt 
from  one  of  them  afterward,  that  they  usually  pay,  by  the  month, 
a  quadroon  female  hairdresser,  a  refinement  in  which  the  richest 
ladies  in  Boston  would  not  think  of  indulging.  The  word  creole 
is  used  in  Louisiana  to  express  a  native-born  American,  whether 


94  QUADROONS.  [CHAP.  XXVlt. 

black  or  white,  descended  from  old-world  parents,  for  they  would 
not  call  the  aboriginal  Indians  Creoles.  It  never  means  persons 
of  mixed  breed  ;  and  the  French  or  Spanish  Creoles  here  would 
shrink  as  much  as  a  New  Englander  from  intermarriage  with 
one  tainted,  in  the  slightest  degree,  with  African  blood.  The 
frequent  alliances  of  the  Creoles,  or  Louisianians,  of  French  ex 
traction,  with  lawyers  and  merchants  from  the  northern  states, 
help  to  cement  the  ties  which  are  every  day  binding  more  firmly 
together  the  distant  parts  of  the  Union.  Both  races  may  be  im 
proved  by  such  connection,  for  the  manners  of  the  Creole  ladies 
are,  for  the  most  part,  more  refined  ;  and  many  a  Louisianian 
might  justly  have  felt  indignant  if  he  could  have  overheard  a 
conceited  young  bachelor  from  the  north  telling  me  "how  much 
they  were  preferred  by  the  fair  sex  to  the  hard-drinking,  gambling, 
horse-racing,  cock-fighting,  and  tobacco-chewing  southerners."  If 
the  Creoles  have  less  depth  of  character,  and  are  less  striving  and 
ambitious  than  the  New  Englanders,  it  must  be  no  slight  source 
of  happiness  to  the  former  to  be  so  content  with  present  advant 
ages.  They  seem  to  feel,  far  more  than  the  Anglo-Saxons,  that 
if  riches  be  worth  the  winning,  they  are  also  worth  enjoying. 

The  quadroons,  or  the  offspring  of  the  whites  and  mulattoes, 
sat  in  an  upper  tier  of  boxes  appropriated  to  them,  When  they 
are  rich,  they  hold  a  peculiar  and  very  equivocal  position  in  so 
ciety.  As  children,  they  have  often  been  sent  to  Paris  for  their 
education,  and,  being  as  capable  of  improvement  as  any  whites, 
return  with  refined  manners,  and  not  unfrequently  with  more 
cultivated  minds  than  the  majority  of  those  from  whose  society 
they  are  shut  out.  By  the  tyranny  of  caste  they  are  driven, 
therefore,  to  form  among  themselves  a  select  and  exclusive  set. 
Among  other  stories  illustrating  their  social  relation  to  the 
whites,  we  were  told  that  a  young  man  of  the  dominant  race 
fell  in  love  with  a  beautiful  quadroon  girl,  who  was  so  light- 
colored  as  to  be  scarcely  distinguishable  from  one  of  pure  breed. 
He  found  that,  in  order  to  render  the  marriage  legal,  he  was  re 
quired  to  swear  that  he  himself  had'  negro  blood  in  his  veins, 
and,  that  he  might  conscientiously  take  the  oath,  he  let  some  of 
the'  blood  of  his  betrothed  into  his  veins  with  a  lancet.  The 


CHAP.  XXVII.]  ST.  CHARLES  THEATER.  95 

romance  of  this  tale  was,  however,  greatly  diminished,  although 
I  fear  that  my  inclination  to  believe  in  its  truth  was  equally 
enhanced,  when  the  additional  circumstance  was  related,  that 
the  young  lady  was  rich. 

Some  part  of  the  feeling  prevailing  in  New  England,  in  regard 
to  the  immorality  of  New  Orleans,  may  be  set  down  to  the  fact 
of  their  theaters  being  open  every  Sunday  evening,  which  is  no 
indication  whatever  of  a  disregard  of  religion  on  the  part  of  the 
Catholics.  The  latter  might,  with  as  much  reason,  reflect  on 
the  Protestants  for  not  keeping  the  doors  of  their  churches  open 
on  week-days.  But  as  a  great  number  of  the  young  mercantile 
men  who  sojourn  here  are  from  the  north,  and  separated  from 
their  families,  they  are  naturally  tempted  to  frequent  the  theaters 
on  Sundays  ;  and  if  they  do  so  with  a  sense  that  they  are  violat 
ing  propriety,  or  acting  against  what  in  their  consciences  they 
think  right,  the  effect  must  be  unfavorable  to  their  moral  char 
acter. 

During  our  stay  here  we  passed  a  delightful  evening  in  the 
St.  Charles  theater,  seeing  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Kean  in  the  "  Game 
ster"  and  in  "  The  Follies  of  a  Night."  Her  acting  of  Mrs. 
Beverley  was  perfection  ;  every  tone  and  gesture  full  of  feeling, 
and  always  lady-like,  never  overwrought,  in  the  most  passionate 
parts.  Charles  Kean's  acting,  especially  in  Richard,  has  been 
eminently  successful  during  his  present  tour  in  the  United  States. 

While  at  New  Orleans,  Mrs.  Kean  told  my  wife  she  had 
been  complimented  on  speaking  English  so  well ;  and  some  won 
der  had  been  expressed  that  she  never  omitted  or  misplaced  her 
h's.  In  like  manner,  during  our  tour  in  New  England,  some  of 
the  natives,  on  learning  that  we  habitually  resided  in  London, 
exclaimed  that  they  had  never  heard  us  confound  our  v's  and  w's. 
"  The  Pickwick  Papers"  have  been  so  universally  read  in  this 
country,  that  it  is  natural  the  Americans  should  imagine  Sam 
Weller's  pronunciation  to  be  a  type  of  that  usually  spoken  in  the 
old  country,  at  least  in  and  about  the  metropolis.  In  their  turn, 
the  English  retaliate  amply  on  American  travelers  in  the  British 
Isles  : — "  You  don't  mean  to  say  you  are  an  American  ?  Is  it 
possible  ?  I  should  never  have  discovered  it,  you  speak  English 


LADIES'  ORDINARY.  [CHAP.  XXVII. 


so  well !" — "  Did  you  suppose  that  we  had  adopted  some  one  of 
the  Indian  languages  ?" — "  I  really  never  thought  about  it;  but 
it  is  wonderful  to  hear  you  talk  like  us  !" 

Looking  into  the  shop-windows  in  New  Orleans,  we  see  much 
which  reminds  us  of  Paris,  and  abundance  of  articles  manufac 
tured  in  the  northern  states,  but  very  few  things  characteristic 
of  Louisiana.  Among  the  latter  I  remarked,  at  a  jeweler's, 
many  alligators'  teeth  polished  and  as  white  as  ivory,  and  set  in 
silver  for  infants  to  wear  round  their  necks  to  rub  against  their 
gums  when  cutting  their  teeth,  in  the  same  way  as  they  use  a 
coral  in  England. 

The  tombs  in  the  cemeteries  on  the  outskirts  of  the  town  are 
raised  from  the  ground,  in  order  that  they  may  be  above  the 
swamps,  and  the  coffins  are  placed  in  bins  like  those  of  a  cellar. 
The  water  is  seen  standing  on  the  soil  at  a  lower  level  in  many 
places  ;  there  are  often  flowers  and  shrubs  round  the  tombs,  by 
the  side  of  walks  made  of  shells  of  the  Gnathodon.  Over  the 
grave  of  one  recently  killed  in  a  duel  was  a  tablet,  with  the 
inscription — "  Mort,  victime  de  1'honneur  !"  Should  any  one 
propose  to  set  up  a  similar  tribute  to  the  memory  of  a  duelist  at 
Mount  Auburn,  near  Boston,  a  sensation  would  be  created  which 
would  manifest  how  v/idely  different  is  the  state  of  public  opinion 
in  New  England  from  that  in  the  "  First  Municipality." 

Among  the  signs  of  the  tacit  recognition  of  an  aristocracy  in 
the  large  cities,  is  the  manner  in  which  persons  of  the  richer  and 
more  refined  classes  associate  together  in  the  large  hotels.  There 
is  one  public  table  frequented  by  bachelors,  commercial  travelers, 
and  gentlemen  not  accompanied  by  their  wives  and  families,  and 
a  more  expensive  one,  called  the  Ladies'  Ordinary,  at  which  la 
dies,  their  husbands,  and  gentlemen  whom  they  invite,  have  their 
meals.  Some  persons  who  occupy  a  marked  position  in  society, 
such  as  our  friend  the  ex-senator,  Mr.  Wilde,  often  obtain  leave 
by  favor  to  frequent  this  ordinary  ;  but  the  keepers  of  the  hotels 
grant  or  decline  the  privilege,  as  they  may  think  proper. 

A  few  days  after  the  Carnival  we  had  another  opportunity  of 
peeing  a  grand  procession  of  the  natives,  without  masks.  The 
corps  of  all  the  different  companies  of  firemen  turned  out  in  their 


CHAP.  XXVII.]       SALUBRITY  OF  NEW  ORLEANS.  97 

uniform,  drawing  their  engines  dressed  up  with  flowers,  ribbons, 
and  flags,  and  I  never  saw  a  finer  set  of  young  men.  We  could 
not  help  contrasting  their  healthy  looks  with  the  pale,  sickly 
countenances  of  "  the  crackers,"  in  the  pine-woods  of  Georgia 
and  Alabama,  where  we  had  been  spending  so  many  weeks.  These 
men  were  almost  all  of  them  Creoles,  and  thoroughly  acclima 
tized  ;  and  I  soon  found  that  if  I  wished  to  ingratiate  myself 
with  natives  or  permanent  settlers  in  this  city,  the  less  surprise 
I  expressed  at  the  robust  aspect  of  these  young  Creoles  the  better. 
The  late  Mr.  Sydney  Smith  advised  an  English  friend  who  was 
going  to  reside  some  years  in  Edinburgh  to  praise  the  climate : — 
"  When  you  arrive  there  it  may  rain,  snow,  or  blow  for  many 
days,  and  they  will  assure  you  they  never  knew  such  a  season 
before.  If  you  would  be  popular,  declare  you  think  it  the  most 
delightful  climate  in  the  world."  When  I  first  heard  New  Or 
leans  commended  for  its  salubrity,  I  could  scarcely  believe  that 
my  companions  were  in  earnest,  till  a  physician  put  into  my 
hands  a  statistical  table,  recently  published  in  a  medical  maga 
zine,  proving  that  in  the  year  1845  the  mortality  in  the  metrop 
olis  of  Louisiana  was  1-850,  whereas  that  of  Boston  was  2-250, 
or,  in  other  words,  while  the  capital  of  Massachusetts  lost  1  out 
of  44  inhabitants,  New  Orleans  lost  only  1  in  54  ;  "yet  the 
year  1845,"  said  he,  "  was  one  of  great  heat,  and  when  a  wider 
area  than  usual  was  flooded  by  the  river,  and  exposed  to  evapor 
ation  under  a  hot  sun." 

It  appears  that  when  New  Orleans  is  empty  in  the  summer — 
in  other  words,  when  all  the  strangers,  about  40,000  in  number, 
go  into  the  country,  and  many  of  them  to  the  north,  fearing  the 
yellow  fever,  the  city  still  contains  between  80,000  and  100,000 
inhabitants,  who  never  suffer  from  the  dreaded  disease,  whether 
they  be  of  European  or  African  origin.  If,  therefore,  it  be  fair 
to  measure  the  salubrity  of  a  district  by  its  adaptation  to  the 
constitutions  of  natives  rather  than  foreigners,  the  claim  set  up 
for  superior  healthiness  may  be  less  preposterous  than  at  first  it 
sounded  to  my  ears.  I  asked  an  Irishman  if  the  summer  heat 
was  intolerable.  «  You  would  have  something  else  to  think  of  in 
the  hot  months,"  said  he,  "  for  there  is  one  set  of  musquitoes  who 
VOL.  n. — E 


98  GOODS  AT  NORTHERN  PRICES.        [CHAP.  XXVII. 

sting  you  all  day,  and  when  they  go  in  toward  dusk,  another 
kind  comes  out  and  bites  you  all  night." 

The  desertion  of  the  city  for  five  months  by  so  many  of  the 
richer  residents,  causes  the  hotels,  and  the  prices  of  almost  every 
article  in  shops,  to  be  very  dear  during  the  remainder  of  the  year. 
"  Goods  selling  at  northern  prices"  is  a  common  form  of  adver 
tisement,  showing  how  high  is  the  usual  cost  of  all  things  in  this 
city.  The  Irish  servants  in  the  hotel  assure  us  that  they  can 
not  save,  in  spite  of  their  high  wages,  for,  whatever  money  they 
put  by  soon  goes  to  pay  the  doctor's  bill,  during  attacks  of  chill 
and  fever. 

Hearing  that  a  Guide-book  of  New  Orleans  had  been  publish 
ed,  we  wished  to  purchase  a  copy,  although  it  was  of  somewhat 
ancient  date  for  a  city  of  rapid  growth.  The  bookseller  said  that 
we  must  wait  till  he  received  some  more  copies  from  New  York, 
for  it  appears  that  the  printing  even  of  books  of  local  interest  is 
done  by  presses  2000  miles  distant.  Their  law  reports  are  not 
printed  here,  and  there  is  only  one  newspaper  in  the  First  Mu 
nicipality,  which  I  was  told  as  very  characteristic  of  the  French 
race  ;  for,  in  the  Second  Municipality,  although  so  much  newer, 
the  Anglo-Americans  have,  during  the  last  ten  years,  started  ten 
newspapers. 

We  were  very  fortunate  in  finding  our  old  friend,  Mr.  Richard 
Henry  Wilde,  residing  in  the  same  hotel,  for  he  had  lately  estab 
lished  himself  iri  New  Orleans,  and  was  practicing  in  the  courts 
of  civil  law  with  success.  The  Roman  law,  originally  introduced 
into  the  courts  here  by  the  first  settlers,  was  afterward  modified 
by  the  French,  and  assimilated  to  the  Code  Napoleon,  and  finally, 
by  modern  innovations,  brought  more  and  more  into  accordance 
with  the  common  law  of  England.  Texas,  in  her  new  constitu 
tion,  and  even  some  of  the  older  states,  those  of  New  England 
not  excepted,  have  borrowed  several  improvements  from  the  Ro 
man  law.  Among  these  is  the  securing  to  married  women  rights 
in  property,  real  and  personal,  so  as  to  protect  them  from  the 
debts  of  their  husbands,  and  enable  them  to  dispose  of  their  own 
property. 

Mr.  Wilde  took  me  to  the  Houses  of  the  Legislature,  where  a 


CHAP.  XXV1I.J  HOUSES  OF  LEGISLATURE.  99 

discussion  was  going  on  as  to  the  propriety  of  changing  the  seat 
of  government  from  New  Orleans  to  some  other  place  in  Louisi 
ana,  for  it  had  been  determined,  though  by  a  majority  of  one 
only,  in  a  convention  appointed  for  that  purpose,  that  they  should 
go  somewhere  else,  to  a  place  at  least  sixty  miles  distant  from 
the  metropolis.  I  remarked,  that  the  accessibility  of  New  Or 
leans  was  so  great,  and  so  many  must  be  drawn  to  it  by  business, 
that  the  determination  to  seek  out  a  new  site  for  a  capital,  seemed 
to  me  incomprehensible.  "  You  will  wonder  still  more,"  he  re 
plied,  "  when  I  tell  you,  that  when  the  convention  had  been  some 
time  at  Baton  Rouge  to  frame  the  new  constitution,  they  thought 
it  advisable  to  adjourn  to  New  Orleans,  where  they  could  consult 
with  lawyers'  who  were  attending  the  courts,  and  with  the  prin 
cipal  merchants,  and  where  they  might  have  access  to  good  libra 
ries,  and  be  in  daily  communication  by  steam  with  all  parts  of 
the  state.  In  short,  they  found  that  for  the  faithful  discharge  of 
their  task,  they  stood  in  need  of  a  great  variety  of  information 
which  they  could  obtain  nowhere  so  readily  as  in  the  metropolis. 
Yet  it  seems  never  to  have  struck  them  that  our  future  law 
makers  might,  with  equal  profit  to  the  state,  derive  knowledge 
from  the  same  sources." 

In  the  House  of  Representatives,  English  is  spoken  exclusively, 
but  in  the  Senate  many  were  addressing  the  House  in  French, 
and  when  they  sat  down  an  interpreter  rose  and  repeated  the 
whole  speech  over  again  in  English.  An  orator  was  on  his  legs, 
maintaining  that  Baton  Rouge  had  the  best  claims  to  become  the 
future  capital,  a  proposition  soon  afterward  adopted  by  the  major 
ity.  Another  contended  that  Donaldson ville  ought  to  be  the 
place,  as  it  would  suit  the  convenience  of  26,000  white  male 
citizens,  while  Baton  Rouge  would  only  favor  the  interest  of 
12,000.  This  line  of  argument  seemed  to  me  to  contain  in  it 
an  implied  censure  on  the  abandonment  of  New  Orleans,  but 
that  was  no  longer  an  open  question.  When  I  afterward  saw 
the  insignificant  village  of  Donaldsonville,  I  could  not  help  being 
diverted  at  the  recollection  of  the  inflated  terms  in  which  its 
future  prospects  had  been  dwelt  upon.  The  speaker  said,  "He 
liked  to  lift  the  vail  off  the  face  of  futurity  and  contemplate  the 


100  CHANGING  SITE  OF  CAPITAL.        [CHAP.  XXVII. 

gigantic  strides  to  wealth,  population  and  power,  which  that  city 
was  destined  to  make  ;  he  liked  to  behold  it  in  imagination,  as  it 
will  be  in  reality,  built  up  from  the  bank  of  the  river  to  the  mar 
gin  of  the  lake,  sustaining  and  supporting  a  happy,  industrious, 
and  enterprising  population  of  millions,  and  being  at  the  same 
time  the  great  emporium  of  the  trade  and  commerce  of  the  world." 

Although  I  talked  much  with  Louisianiaris  of  different  classes 
in  society,  as  to  their  reasons  for  changing  the  site  of  the  capital, 
I  never  could  satisfy  myself  that  I  had  fathomed  the  truth,  and 
suspect  that  a  spirit  of  envy  and  antagonism  of  country  against 
town  lies  more  at  the  bottom  of  the  measure  than  they  were 
willing  to  confess,  aggravated,  perhaps,  in  this  case,  by  the  rivalry 
of  two  races.  No  one  pretended  that  they  wished  to  retreat  to 
a  village,  from  fear  that  the  populace,  or  mob,  of  New  Orleans 
might  control  the  free  action  of  the  representative  body.  Some 
told  me,  that  as  their  members  received  pay,  they  were  desirous 
of  taking  away  from  them  all  temptations  to  protract  the  session, 
which  the  charms  of  a  luxurious  metropolis  afforded.  They  also 
affirmed  that,  by  living  in  so  dear  a  place,  their  representatives 
acquired  extravagant  notions  in  regard  to  the  expenditure  of  pub 
lic  money,  and  that  they  were  exposed  to  the  influence  of  rich 
merchants  and  capitalists,  who  gave  them  good  dinners,  and 
brought  them  round  to  their  opinions. 

I  asked  if  a  convention  for  remodeling  the  constitution  had 
been  called  for.  My  informants  were  generally  disposed  to  think 
that  the  time  had  arrived  when  such  a  re-cast  of  the  old  system 
had  become  unavoidable.  The  recurrence,  they  said,  of  such 
conventions  every  twenty-five  or  thirty  years,  might  seem  to 
European  politicians  to  imply  a  wish  to  perpetuate  an  experi 
mental  state  of  things  ;  but  where  the  population  had  quadrupled 
since  the  last  convention — where  thousands  of  emigrants  had 
poured  in  from  various  states,  the  majority  of  them  speaking  a 
new  language,  and  introducing  a  new  code  of  laws,  into  the  Sec 
ond  Municipality — where  circumstances  connected  with  their 
social,  religious,  political,  and  financial  affairs  had  so  altered — in 
a  word,  where  they  were  unavoidably  in  a  transition  state,  the 
best  way  of  guarding  against  revolutionary  movements  was  to 


CHAP.  XXVII.]  JUDGES  CASHIERED.  101 

settle  on  some  fixed  periods  for  revising  the  constitution,  and  in 
quiring  whether  any  organic  changes  were  indispensable. 

Among  other  violent  proceedings,  I  found  that  the  late  conven 
tion  had  cashiered  all  the  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court,  although 
they  had  been  appointed  for  life,  or  "  quamdiu  se  bene  gesserint," 
and  with  very  high  salaries.  They  were  to  have  no  retiring 
pensions,  and  this  I  remarked  was  an  iniquity,  as  some  of  them 
had  doubtless  given  up  a  lucrative  practice  on  the  faith  of  enjoy 
ing  a  seat  on  the  bench  for  life.  Some  lawyers  agreed  that  the 
measure  was  indefensible,  and  said  they  presumed  that,  in  the 
end,  the  democratic  party  would  elect  all  the  judges  annually,  by 
universal  suffrage.  I  met,  however,  with  optimists  who  were 
ready  to  defend  every  act  of  the  convention.  Several  of  the 
judges,  they  said,  were  superannuated,  and  it  would  have  been 
invidious  to  single  them  out,  and  force  them  to  resign.  It  was 
better  to  dismiss  the  whole.  "  As  for  retiring  pensions,  we  hold, 
with  your  Jeremy  Bentham,  that  no  man  can  acquire  a  vested 
right  in  a  public  injury.  Men  are  apt,  when  they  have  retained 
possession  of  an  office  for  a  great  part  of  their  lives,  to  think  they 
own  it."  "  But  what  is  to  become  of  the  judges,"  said  I,  "  who 

are  thus  cast  off  without  pensions  ?"      "  Old  Judge  A ,"  he 

replied,   "  owns  a  plantation,   and  will  go  and  farm  it.      Judge 

B will  probably  get  a  professor's  chair  in  the  new  Law 

University  ;"  and  so  he  went  on,  providing  for  all  of  them.  "  In 
future,"  he  continued,  "  our  judges  are  to  be  appointed  by  the 
Governor  and  Senate,  with  good  salaries,  for  eight  years  ;  those 
first  named  being  for  two,  four,  six,  and  eight  years,  so  that  they 
may  go  out  in  rotation  ;  but  members  of  the  Legislature  can  not 
be  raised  to  the  bench,  as  in  Great  Britain."  I  objected,  that 
such  a  system  might  render  a  judge  who  desired  to  be  re-elected 
subservient  to  the  party  in  power,  or  at  least  open  to  such  an  im 
putation.  "  No  doubt,"  he  rejoined  ;  "  as  in  the  case  of  your 
judges,  who  may  be  promoted  to  higher  posts  on  the  bench.  As 
to  the  corrupting  influence  of  their  dependence  on  a  legislature 
chosen  by  a  widely-extended  suffrage,  many  of  your  mayors  and 
aldermen  are  elected  for  short  terms,  and  exercise  judicial  func 
tions  in  England." 


CHAPTER   XXVIII. 

Negroes  not  Attacked  by  Yellow  Fever. — History  of  Mr.  Wilde's  Poem. — 
The  Market,  New  Orleans. — Motley  Character  of  Population. — Levee 
and  Steamers. — First  Sight  of  Mississippi  River. — View  from  the  Cupola 
of  the  St.  Charles. — Site  of  New  Orleans. — Excursion  to  Lake  Pontchar- 
train. — Shell  Road. — Heaps  of  Gnathodon. — Excavation  for  Gas- Works. 
— Buried  Upright  Trees. — Pere  Antoine's  Date-palm. 

BEFORE  we  left  New  Orleans  Mr.  Wilde  received  a  message 
from  his  negroes,  whom  he  had  left  behind  at  Augusta,  in  Georgia, 
entreating  him  to  send  for  them.  They  had  felt,  it  seems,  some 
what  hurt  and  slighted  at  not  having  been  sooner  permitted  to 
join  him.  He  told  us  that  he  was  only  waiting  for  a  favorable 
season  to  transplant  them,  for  he  feared  that  men  of  color,  when 
they  had  been  acclimatized  for  several  generations  in  so  cool  a 
country  as  the  upper  parts  of  Alabama  and  Georgia,  might  run 
great  risk  of  the  yellow  fever,  although  the  medical  men  here  as 
sured  him  that  a  slight  admixture  of  negro  blood  sufficed  to  make 
them  proof  against  this  scourge. 

"  No  one,"  he  said,  "  feels  safe  here,  who  has  not  survived  an 
attack  of  the  fever,  or  escaped  unharmed  while  it  has  been  rag 
ing."  He  mentioned  the  belief  of  some  theorists,  that  the  com 
plaint  was  caused  by  invisible  animalcules,  a  notion  agreeing  sin 
gularly  with  that  of  many  Romans  in  regard  to  the  malaria  of 
Italy. 

The  year  following  this  conversation,  our  excellent  friend  was 
himself  carried  off  by  this  fatal  disease.  He  is  well  known  to 
the  literary  world  as  the  author  of  a  work  on  the  "  Love  and 
Madness  of  Tasso,"  published  in  1842,  and  perhaps  still  more 
generally  by  some  beautiful  lines,  beginning  "  My  life  is  like  the 
summer  rose,"  which  are  usually  supposed  to  have  derived  their 
tone  of  touching  melancholy,  from  his  grief  at  the  sudden  death 
of  a  brother,  and  soon  after  of  a  mother,  who  never  recovered  the 
shock  of  her  son's  death.  As  there  had  been  so  much  contro- 


CHAP.  XXVIII.]  MR.  WILDE'S  POEM.  103 

versy  about  this  short  poem,  we  asked  Mr.  Wilde  to  relate  to  us 
its  true  history,  which  is  curious.  He  had  been  one  of  a  party 
at  Savannah,  when  the  question  was  raised  whether  a  certain 
professor  of  the  University  of  Georgia  understood  Greek  ;  on 
which  one  of  his  companions  undertook  to  translate  Mr.  Wilde's 
verses,  called  "  The  Complaint  of  the  Captive,"  into  Greek  prose, 
so  arranged  as  to  appear  like  verse,  and  then  see  if  he  could  pass 
it  off  upon  the  Professor  as  a  fragment  of  AlcaBus.  The  trick 
succeeded,  although  the  Professor  said  that  not  having  the  works 
of  Alcseus  at  hand,  he  could  not  feel  sure  that  the  poem  was 
really  his.  It  was  then  sent,  without  the  knowledge  of  Mr. 
Wilde  and  his  friends,  to  a  periodical  at  New  York,  and  pub 
lished  as  a  fragment  from  Alcseus,  and  the  Senator  for  Georgia 
was  vehemently  attacked  by  his  political  opponents,  for  having 
passed  off  a  translation  from  the  Greek  as  an  original  composi 
tion  of  his  own. 

Soon  after  this  affair,  Captain  Basil  Hall  mentioned  in  his 
"  Schloss  Hainfeld"  (chap,  x.),  that  the  Countess  Purgstall  had 
read  the  lines  to  him,  and  would  not  tell  him  who  was  the  au 
thor,  but  he  had  little  doubt  that  she  had  written  them  herself. 
The  verses  had  become  so  popular  that  they  were  set  to  music, 
and  the  name  of  Tampa,  a  desolate  sea-beach  on  the  coast  of 
Florida,  was  changed  into  Tempe,  the  loveliest  of  the  wooded 
valleys  of  Greece,  in  the  concluding  stanza  : — 

"  My  life  is  like  the  prints  which  feet 

Have  left  on  Tampa's  desert  strand ; 
Soon  as  the  rising  tide  shall  beat, 

All  trace  will  vanish  from  the  sand. 
Yet,  as  if  grieving  to  efface 
All  vestige  of  the  human  race, 
On  that  lone  shore  loud  moans  the  sea, — 
But  none,  alas !  shall  mourn  for  me  !" 

In  the  countess's  version  Zara  had  been  substituted  for  Tampa. 

During  our  stay  in  New  Orleans,  Mr.  Wilde  introduced  us  to 
his  friend  Mr.  Clay,  the  Whig  candidate  in  the  late  presidential 
election,  and  I  was  glad  of  the  opportunity  of  conversing  with 
this  distinguished  statesman.  In  the  principal  Episcopal  church 
we  were  very  fortunate  in  hearing  Dr.  Hawkes  preach,  and 


104  THE  MARKET,  NEW  ORLEANS.     [CHAP.  XXVIII. 

thought  the  matter  and  manner  of  his  discourse  deserving  of  his 
high  reputation  for  pulpit  eloquence. 

One  morning  we  rose  early  to  visit  the  market  of  the  First 
Municipality,  and  found  the  air  on  the  bank  of  the  Mississippi 
filled  with  mist  as  dense  as  a  London  fog,  hut  of  a  pure  white 
instead  of  yellow  color.  Through  this  atmosphere  the  innumera 
ble  masts  of  the  ships  alongside  the  wharf,  were  dimly  seen. 
Among  other  fruits  in  the  market  we  observed  abundance  of  ba 
nanas,  and  good  pine-apples,  for  25  cents  (or  a  shilling)  each, 
from  the  West  Indies.  There  were  stalls  where  hot  coffee  was 
selling  in  white  china  cups,  reminding  us  of  Paris.  Among 
other  articles  exposed  for  sale,  were  brooms  made  of  palmetto 
leaves,  and  wagon-loads  of  the  dried  Spanish  moss,  or  Tillandma. 
The  quantity  of  this  plant  hanging  from  the  trees  in  the  swamps 
surrounding  New  Orleans,  and  every  where  in  the  delta  of  the 
Mississippi,  might  suffice  to  stuff  all  the  mattresses  in  the  world. 
The  Indians  formerly  used  it  for  another  purpose — to  give  poros 
ity  or  lightness  to  their  building  materials.  When  at  Natchez, 
Dr.  Dickeson  showed  me  some  bricks  dug  out  of  an  old  Indian 
mound,  in  which  the  tough  woody  fiber  of  the  Tillandsia  was 
still  preserved.  When  passing  through  the  stalls,  we  were  sur 
rounded  by  a  population  of  negroes,  mulattoes,  and  quadroons,  some 
talking  French,  others  a  patois  of  Spanish  and  French,  others  a 
mixture  of  French  and  English,  or  English  translated  from  French, 
and  with  the  French  accent.  They  seemed  very  merry,  espe 
cially  those  who  were  jet  black.  Some  of  the  Creoles  also,  both 
of  French  and  Spanish  extraction,  like  many  natives  of  the  south 
of  Europe,  were  very  dark. 

Amid  this  motley  group,  sprung  from  so  many  races,  we  en 
countered  a  young  man  and  woman,  arm-in-arm,  of  fair  complex 
ion,  evidently  Anglo-Saxon,  and  who  looked  as  if  they  had  recently 
come  from  the  north.  The  Indians,  Spaniards,  and  French  stand 
ing  round  them,  seemed  as  if  placed  there  to  remind  us  of  the  suc 
cessive  races  whose  power  in  Louisiana  had  passed  away,  while 
this  fair  couple  were  the  representatives  of  a  people  whose  domin 
ion  carries  the  imagination  far  into  the  future.  However  much 
the  moralist  may  satirize  the  spirit  of  conquest,  or  the  foreigner 


CHAP.  XXVIII.]  VIEW  OF  CITY.  105 

laugh  at  some  vain-glorious  boasting  about  "  our  destiny,"  none 
can  doubt  that  from  this  stock  is  to  spring  the  people  who  will 
supersede  every  other  in  the  northern,  if  not  also  in  the  southern 
continent  of  America  : — 

• "  Immota  manebunt 

Fata  tibi  .... 

Romanes  rerum  dominos." 

Soon  after  our  arrival  we  walked  to  the  levee,  or  raised  bank 
of  the  Mississippi,  and,  ascending  to  the  top  of  the  high  roof  of  a 
large  steamer,  looked  down  upon  the  yellow  muddy  stream.,  not 
much  broader  than  the  Thames  at  London.  At  first  I  was  dis 
appointed  that  the  "  Father  of  Waters"  did  not  present  a  more 
imposing  aspect ;  but  when  I  had  studied  and  contemplated  the 
Mississippi  for  many  weeks,  it  left  on  my  mind  an  impression  of 
grandeur  and  vastness  far  greater  than  I  had  conceived  before 
seeing  it.  We  counted  thirty-four  large  steam-ships  lying  at  the 
wharf,  each  with  their  double  chimneys,  and  some  of  truly  mag 
nificent  dimensions.  The  vessel  we  had  chanced  to  enter,  had 
her  steam  up  and  was  bound  for  St.  Louis,  and  we  were  informed 
that  she  would  convey  us  to  that  city,  a  distance  of  1100  miles, 
in  five  days,  against  the  current,  for  eighteen  dollars,  or  4/.,  board 
included. 

We  next  went,  for  the  sake  of  obtaining  a  genera]  view  of  the 
city  and  its  environs,  to  the  top  of  the  cupola  of  the  St.  Charles 
Hotel,  the  most  conspicuous  building  in  New  Orleans,  finished  in 
183G,  the  lofty  dome  of  which  is  of  a  beautiful  form.  Within 
the  memory  of  persons  now  living,  there  were  to  be  seen  on  the 
site  of  this  massive  edifice,  ducks  and  other  water  birds,  swim 
ming  about  in  pools  of  water,  in  a  morass.  The  architect  began 
the  foundation  by  placing  horizontally  on  the  mud  a  layer  of 
broad  planks  two  and  a  half  inches  thick  ;  in  spite  of  which,  the- 
heavy  building  has  sunk  slightly  in  some  places,  but  apparently 
without  sustaining  material  injury. 

If  a  traveler  has  expected,  on  first  obtaining  an  extensive  view 
of  the  environs  of  this  city,  to  see  an  unsightly  swamp,  with 
scarcely  any  objects  to  relieve  the  monotony  of  the  flat  plain  save 
the  winding  river  and  a  few  lakes,  he  will  fee  agreeably  disap- 

E* 


106  SITE  OF  NEW  ORLEANS.  [CHAP.  XXVIII. 

pointed.  He  will  admire  many  a  villa  and  garden  in  the  sub 
urbs,  and  in  the  uncultivated  space  beyond,  the  effect  of  uneven 
and  undulating  ground  is  produced  by  the  magnificent  growth  of 
cypress  and  other  swamp  timber,  which  have  converted  what 
would  otherwise  have  formed  the  lowest  points  in  the  landscape 
into  the  appearance  of  wooded  eminences.  From  the  gallery  of 
the  cupola  we  saw  the  well-proportioned,  massive  square  tower 
of  St.  Patrick's  Church,  recently  built  for  the  Irish  Catholics,  the 
dome  of  the  St.  Louis  Hotel,  and  immediately  below  us  that  fine 
bend  of  the  Mississippi,  where  we  had  just  counted  the  steamers 
at  the  wharf.  Here,  in  a  convex  curve  of  the  bank,  there  has 
been  a  constant  gain  of  land,  so  that  in  the  last  twenty-five  years 
no  less  than  three  streets  have  been  erected,  one  beyond  the  oth 
er,  and  all  within  the  line  of  several  large  posts  of  cedar,  to  which 
boats  were  formerly  attached.  New  Orleans  was  called  the 
Crescent  City,  because  the  First  Municipality  was  built  along 
this  concave  bend  of  the  Mississippi.  The  river  in  this  part  of 
its  course  varies  in  breadth  from  a  mile  to  three-quarters  of  a  mile, 
and  below  the  city  sweeps  round  a  curve  for  eighteen  miles,  and 
then  returns  again  to  a  point  within  five  or  six  miles  of  that  from 
which  it  had  set  out.  Some  engineers  are  of  opinion  that  as  the 
isthmus  thus  formed  is  only  occupied  by  a  low  marsh,  the  cur 
rent  will  in  time  cut  through  it,  in  which  case  the  First  Munic 
ipality  will  be  deserted  by  the  main  channel.  Even  should  this 
happen,  the  prosperity  of  a  city  which  extends  continuously  for 
more  than  six  miles  along  the  river  would  not  be  materially  af 
fected,  for  its  site  has  been  admirably  chosen,  although  originally 
determined  in  some  degree  by  chance.  The  French  began  their 
settlements  on  Lake  Pontchartrain  because  they  found  there  an 
easy  communication  with  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  But  they  fixed 
the  site  of  their  town  on  that  part  of  the  great  river  which  was 
nearest  to  the  lagoon,  so  as  to  command,  by  this  means,  the  nav 
igation  of  the  interior  country. 

March  5,  1846. — From  New  Orleans  I  made  a  short  excur 
sion  with  Dr.  Carpenter  and  Dr.  M'Cormac  to  Lake  Pontchar 
train,  six  miles  to  the  northward.  We  went  first  along  the 
«'  shell  road"  by  the  Bayou  St,  John's,  and  then  returned  by  the 


CHAP.  XXVIII.]  HEAPS  OF  GNATHODON.  107 


canal.  The  shell  road,  so  called  from  the  materials  used  in.  its 
construction,  namely,  the  valves  of  the  Gnathodon  cuneatus, 
before  mentioned,  is  of  a  dazzling  white  color,  and  in  the  bright 
sunshine  formed  a  strong  contrast  with  the  vegetation  of  the  ad 
joining  swamps.  Yet  the  verdure  of  the  tail  cypresses  is  some 
what  dimmed  by  the  somber  color  of  the  gray  Spanish  moss  hang 
ing  every  where  from  its  boughs  like  drapery.  The  rich  clusters 
of  scarlet  and  purplish  fruit  of  the  red  maple  (Acer  Drummondii) 
were  very  conspicuous,  and  the  willows  have  just  unfolded  their 
apple-green  leaves.  The  swamp  palmetto  ( Chamcerops  adanso- 
nia)  raises  its  fan-shaped  leaves  ten  feet  high,  although  without 
any  main  trunk,  like  the  sea-island  palmetto  before  described. 
Several  of  them  are  surmounted  by  spikes  bearing  seeds.  Among 
the  spring  flowers  we  gathered  violets  ( Viola  cuculata),  the  ele 
gant  Housto?iia  serpyllifolia,  which  we  had  first  seen  at  Clai- 
borne,  and  a  white  bramble  (Rubus,  trivialis),  the  odor  of  which 
resembles  that  of  our  primrose.  The  common  white  clover,  also, 
is  most  abundant  here,  as  on  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi,  below 
New  Orleans  ;  yet  it  is  not  a  native  of  Louisiana,  and  some  bot 
anists  doubt  whether  any  of  the  European  species  now  growing 
wild  in  this  state  are  indigenous. 

Lake  Pontchartrain  is  about  fifteen  feet  below  high  water,  and 
two  feet  below  the  lowest  water  of  the  Mississippi.  It  is  said  to 
have  become  sensibly  shallower  in  the  last  forty  years,  its  depth 
being  now  fourteen  or  fifteen  feet  only,  for  it  receives  annual  sup 
plies  of  mud  from  the  Mississippi,  poured  into  it  by  one  of  its 
mouths,  called  the  Iberville  River. 

The  southeast  wind  sometimes  drives  the  salt  water  into  the 
great  lagoon,  and  raises  its  level  from  five  to  ten  feet.  On  a  mud 
bank  near  the  shore  I  observed  the  living  Gnathodon,  accom 
panied  by  a  modiola  (JDreissena  ?),  and  there  was  a  small  bank 
of  dead  shells  on  the  southern  borders  of  the  lake,  which  may 
have  been  thrown  up  by  the  waves  in  a  storm,  the  valves  of  most 
of  them  being  separate.  I  learned  that  the  road  materials  before 
spoken  of  were  procured  from  the  east  end,  where  there  is  an 
enormous  mound  of  dead  shells,  a  mile  long,  fifteen  feet  high,  and 
from  twenty  to  sixty  yards  broad.  Dr.  Riddell,  Director  of  the 


108  EXCAVATION  FOR  GAS-WORKS.     [CHAP.  XXVIH 

Mint  at  New  Orleans,  estimates  the  height  of  some  of  these  shell 
banks  north  of  the  lake,  at  twenty  feet  above  its  level ;  yet  h$ 
thinks  they  may  have  been  washed  up  by  the  waves  during 
storms.  I  suspect,  however,  that  some  change  in  the  relative 
level  of  land  and  sea  has  taken  place  since  their  accumulation. 
Dr.  M'Cormac  informed  jne  that  he  had  observed  heaps  of  these 
same  shells  recently  cast  up  along  the  margin  of  the  bay  called 
the  Sabine  Lake,  where  the  waters  of  the  delta  are  brackish. 

Returning  to  the  bayou,  we  passed  a  splendid  grove  of  live 
oaks  on  the  Mctairie  ridge,  supposed  by  some  to  be  an  old  bank 
of  the  Mississippi.  These  bayous,  which  traverse  the  delta  and 
alluvial  plain  of  the  Mississippi  in  every  direction,  are  some  of 
them  ancient  arms  of  the  great  river,  and  others  parts  of  its  main 
channel  which  have  been  deserted.  They  are  at  a  lower  level 
than  the  present  bed  of  the  river,  and  convey  the  surface-waters 
to  the  sea  from  that  part  of  the  land  which  the  Mississippi  is 
incapable  of  draining.  The  bayous  are  sometimes  stagnant,  and 
sometimes  they  flow  in  one  direction  when  they  convey  the  sur 
plus  waters  of  the  Mississippi  to  the  swamps,  and  in  an  opposite 
direction  at  seasons  when  they  drain  the  swarnps. 

When  we  reached  the  canal  which  connects  Lake  Pontchar- 
train  with  New  Orleans,  we  found  its  surface  enlivened  with  the 
sails  of  vessels  laden  with  merchandize.  On  the  stern  of  one  of 
these  I  read,  in  large  letters,  a  favorite  name  here — "  The  Dem 
ocrat."  Many  features  of  the  country  reminded  me  of  Holland. 
About  a  mile  from  the  city  we  passed  a  building  where  there  is 
steam  machinery  for  pumping  up  water  and  draining  the  low 
lands. 

It  is  not  easy  for  a  geologist  who  wishes  to  study  the  modern 
deposits  in  the  delta,  to  find  any  natural  sections.  I  was  there 
fore  glad  to  learn  that,  in  digging  the  foundations  of  the  gas-works, 
an  excavation  had  been  made  more  than  fifteen  feet  deep,  and 
therefore  considerably  below  the  level  of  the  Gulf,  for  the  land  at 
New  Orleans  is  elevated  only  nine  feet  above  the  sea.  The  con 
tractors  had  first  hired  Irishmen,  with  spades,  to  dig  this  pit ; 
but  finding  that  they  had  to  cut  through  buried  timber,  instead 
of  soil,  they  were  compelled  to  engage,  instead,  150  well-prac- 


CHAP.  XXVIII.]          BURIED  UPRIGHT  TREES.  109 

ticed  ax-men  from  Kentucky.  I  am  informed  that  the  superin 
tendent  of  the  gas-works,  Dr.  Rogers,  who  is  now  absent  in  Cuba, 
endeavored  to  estimate  the  minimum  of  time  required  for  the 
growth  of  the  cypress  and  other  trees,  superimposed  one  upon 
the  other,  in  an  upright  position,  with  their  roots  as  they  grew, 
and  had  come  to  the  opinion,  that  eighteen  centuries  must  hava 
been  required  for  the  accumulation.  At  the  time  of  my  visit  the 
section  was  too  obscure  to  enable  me  to  verify  or  criticise  these 
conclusions  ;  but  Mr.  Bringier,  the  state  surveyor,  told  me  that 
when  the  great  canal,  before  alluded  to,  was  dug  to  the  depth  of 
nine  feet  from  Lake  Pontchartrain,  they  had  cut  through  a  cy 
press  swamp  which  had  evidently  filled  up  gradually,  for  there 
were  three  tiers  of  the  stumps  of  trees,  some  of  them  very  old, 
ranged  one  above  the  other  ;  and  some  of  the  trunks  must  have 
rotted  away  to  the  level  of  the  ground  in  the  swamp  before  the 
tipper  ones  grew  over  them.  If  it  be  true,  as  I  suspect  from 
these  statements,  that  the  stools  of  trees  which  grew  in  fresh 
water  can  be  traced  down  to  a  level  below  the  Gulf  of  Mexico, 
we  must  conclude  that  the  land  has  sunk  down  vertically.  Per 
haps  some  part  of  this  subsidence  might  arise  from  the  gradual 
decay  or  compression  of  large  masses  of  wood  slowly  changing 
into  lignite,  for  carbonated  hydrogen  is  said  to  be  constantly  given 
out  from  the  soil  here  wherever  such  masses  of  vegetable  matter 
are  decomposing ;  and  during  the  excavation  of  these  works  much 
inflammable  gas  was  observed  to  escape.  That  such  upright 
buried  trees  are  not  every  where  to  be  met  with  in  this  part  of 
the  delta,  I  ascertained  from  Mr.  Bringier.  At  his  house,  in  the 
suburbs  of  New  Orleans,  a  well  has  been  sunk  to  the  depth  of 
twenty-seven  feet,  and  the  strata  passed  through  consisted  of  sandy 
clay,  with  only  here  and  there  some  buried  timber  and  roots. 

Walking  through  one  of  the  streets  of  New  Orleans,  near  the 
river,  immediately  north  of  the  Catholic  cathedral,  I  was  surprised 
to  see  a  fine  date-palm,  thirty  feet  high,  growing  in  the  open  air. 
(See  fig.  8.) 

Mr.  Wilde  told  me,  that  in  1829,  in  the  island  of  Anastatio, 
opposite  St.  Augustine,  in  Florida,  he  saw  one  still  taller,  proba 
bly  brought  there  by  the  Spaniards,  who  have  introduced  them 


110 


DATE-PALM. 


[CHAP.  XXVIII. 


into  the  south  of  Spain  from  Africa.  The  tree  is  seventy  or 
eighty  years  old,  for  Pere  Antoine,  a  Roman  Catholic  priest, 
who  died  about  twenty  years  ago,  at  the  age  of  eighty,  told  Mr. 
Bringier  that  he  planted  it  himself,  when  he  was  young.  In  his 
will  he  provided,  that  they  who  succeeded  to  this  lot  of  ground 
should  forfeit  it  if  they  cut  down  the  palm.  Wishing  to  know 
something  of  Pere  Antoine's  history,  I  asked  a  Catholic  Creole, 
who  had  a  great  veneration  for  him,  when  he  died.  He  said  it 
could  never  be  ascertained,  because,  after  he  became  very  emaci 
ated,  he  walked  the  streets  like  a  mummy,  and  gradually  dried 
up,  ceasing  at  last  to  move  ;  but  his  flesh  never  decayed,  or  em 
itted  any  disagreeable  odour. 

Fig.  8. 


Pere  Antoine's  Date-palm  (Phoenix  dactylifera). 

If  the  people  here  wish  to  adorn  their  metropolis  with  a  striking 
ornament,  such  as  the  northern  cities  can  never  emulate,  let  them 
plant  in  one  of  their  public  squares  an  avenue  of  these  date-palms. 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

Excursion  from  New  Orleans  to  the  Mouths  of  the  River. — Steam-Boat 
Accidents. — River  Fogs. — Successive  Growths  of  Willow  on  River  Bank. 
— Pilot-Station  of  the  Balize. — Lighthouse  destroyed  by  Hurricane. — 
Reeds,  Shells,  and  Birds  on  Mud-Banks.— Drift- Wood. — Difficulty  of 
estimating  the  annual  Increase  of  Delta. — Action  of  Tides  and  Currents. 
— Tendency  in  the  old  Soundings  to  be  restored. — Changes  of  Mouths  in 
a  Century  inconsiderable. — Return  to  New  Orleans. — Battle-Ground. — 
Sugar-Mill. — Contrast  of  French  and  Anglo-American  Races. — Causes 
of  Difference. — State  and  Progress  of  Negroes  in  Louisiana. 

Feb.  28,  1846. — BEFORE  my  arrival  at  New  Orleans,  I  had 
resolved  to  visit  the  mouths  of  the  Mississippi,  and  see  the  banks 
of  sand,  mud,  and  drift  timber,  recently  formed  there  during  the 
annual  inundations.  Dr.  William  Carpenter,  although  iri  full 
practice  as  a  physician,  kindly  offered  to  accompany  me,  and  his 
knowledge  of  botany  and  geology,  as  well  as  his  amiable  manners, 
made  him  a  most  useful  and  agreeable  companion.* 

I  had  heard  much  of  the  dangers  of  the  Mississippi,  and  even 
before  I  left  New  England,  some  of  my  friends,  partly  in  jest, 
and  partly  for  the  sake  of  inspiring  me  with  due  caution,  in  the 
choice  of  vessels  and  captains,  had  told  me  endless  stories  of  the 
risks  we  should  run.  One  of  them  presented  to  me  a  newspaper, 
containing  a  formidable  array  of  last  year's  casualties.  Fifty 
vessels  had  been  snagged,  twenty-seven  sunk,  sixteen  had  burst 
their  boilers,  fifteen  had  been  run  into  by  other  vessels,  thirteen 
destroyed  by  fire,  ten  wrecked,  and  seven  cut  through  by  ice. 
This  enumeration  was  followed  by  an  account  of  the  number  of 
persons  drowned  or  injured.  Another  friend  called  my  attention 
to  a  form  of  advertisement,  not  uncommon  in  the  St.  Louis  papers, 
headed  thus,  "  A  fine  opportunity  of  going  below."  This,  he 
explained,  "  does  not  mean  going  to  the  bottom,  as  you  might 

*  This  excellent  naturalist,  I  regret  to  say,  died  soon  afterward,  in  the 
prime  of  life,  at  New  Orleans,  in  1848. 


112  STEAM-BOAT  ACCIDENTS.  [CHAP.  XXIX. 

naturally  conclude  (although  this  is  by  no  means  an  improbable 
result  of  your  voyage),  but  it  merely  signifies  '  going  down  the 
river.'  '"'  Another  offered  this  piece  of  advice,  "  When  you  are 
racing  with  an  opposition  steam-boat,  or  chasing  her,  and  the 
other  passengers  are  cheering  the  captain,  who  is  sitting  on  the 
safety  valve  to  keep  it  down  with  his  weight,  go  as  far  as  you 
can  from  the  engine,  and  lose  no  time,  especially  if  you  hear  the 
captain  exclaim,  '  Fire  up  boys,  put  on  the  resin  !'  Should  a 
servant  call  out,  '  Those  gentlemen  who  have  not  paid  their 
passage  will  please  to  go  to  the  ladies'  cabin,'  obey  the  summons 
without  a  moment's  delay,  for  then  an  explosion  may  be  appre 
hended."  "  Why  to  the  ladies's  cabin  ?"  said  I.  "  Because  it 
is  the  safe  end  of  the  boat,  and  they  are  getting  anxious  for  the 
personal  security  of  those  who  have  not  yet  paid  their  dollars, 
being,  of  course,  indifferent  about  the  rest.  Therefore  never  pay 
in  advance,  for  should  you  fall  overboard  during  a  race,  and  the 
watch  cries  out  to  the  captain,  '  A  passenger  overboard,'  he  will 
ask,  '  Has  he  paid  his  passage  ?'  and  if  he  receives  an  answer  in 
the  affirmative,  he  will  call  out,  '  Go  ahead  !'  " 

I  shall  explain  in  the  sequel  why  the  danger  of  accidents,  in 
the  present  state  of  the  navigation,  is  by  no  means  so  great  as 
statistical  tables  make  it  appear  at  a  distance  ;  but  certainly  my 
first  day's  experience  was  not  of  a  character  to  dispose  me  to 
regard  the  warnings  I  had  received  as  idle  or  uncalled  for. 
After  we  had  been  seated  for  half  an  hour  on  the  deck  of  the 
"  Wave"  steamer,  Dr.  Carpenter  was  recommended  by  a  friend 
to  go  by  preference  in  a  rival  boat,  just  ready  to  start  for  the 
Balize,  which  he  said  was  safer.  We  accordingly  went  into 
her,  and  she  sailed  first.  Eight  hours  afterward,  while  we  were 
waiting,  as  I  thought,  an  unconscionable  time,  at  a  landing,  while 
a  Creole  proprietor,  who  was  by  no  means  inclined  to  be  in  a 
hurry,  was  embarking  himself  and  some  black  servants,  we  saw 
the  rival  steamer  come  up  very  slowly.  No  sooner  had  she 
joined  us,  than  all  her  passengers  poured  into  our  steamer,  and 
told  us  they  had  been  in  the  greatest  alarm,  their  steam-pipe 
having  burst  ;  but,  most  providentially,  they  had  all  escaped 
without  serious  injury.  If  I  had  not  already  sailed  about  1500 


CHAP.  XXIX.]  RTVER  FOGS.  113 

miles  in  southern  steamboats,  since  leaving  South  Carolina,  with 
out  a  mischance,  I  might  have  looked  on  this  adventure  as  very 
ominous. 

The  greater  part  of  New  Orleans  would  be  annually  over- 
flowed  by  the  river,  but  for  the  "  levee,"  an  artificial  embank 
ment,  eight  or  nine  feet  high,  which  protects  the  city.  This 
levee  became  less  and  less  elevated  as  we  descended  the  stream. 
We  saw  the  buildings  of  several  sugar  plantations  just  behind  it,  at 
a  short  distance  from  the  edge  of  the  bank.  When  we  had  gone 
about  twenty  miles,  below  the  bend  called  the  English  turn,  I 
was  struck  with  the  resemblance  of  the  Mississippi  to  the  Savan 
nah,  Alabama,  and  Altamaha  rivers,  where  they  flow  through 
a  broad  alluvial  plain,  with  no  bluffs  in  sight.  The  swamps  on 
both  sides,  although  several  feet  lower  than  the  river  banks,  have 
the  aspect,  as  before  stated,  of  wooded  eminences. 

The  distance  from  New  Orleans  to  the  great  pilot-station  at 
the  mouth  of  the  river,  called  the  Balize,  is  about  80  miles  by 
land,  and  1 1 0  by  water.  We  had  been  told  we  should  reach 
our  destination  before  night ;  but  we  were  scarcely  half  way, 
when  we  cast  anchor  in  a  dense  fog,  followed  in  the  course  of 
the  night,  by  much  lightning  and  rain.  We  found  the  tempera 
ture  of  the  water  to  be  46°  Fahrenheit,  while  that  of  the  air  had 
varied,  in  the  course  of  twenty-four  hours,  from  50°  to  75°.  This 
difference  between  the  temperature  of  the  water  and  air,  often 
amounting  to  3  0  °  Fahrenheit,  gives  rise  to  the  fogs  which  prevail 
at  this  season.  The  river  flowing  from  the  north,  where  there  is 
now  much  ice  and  snow,  is  always  much  colder,  and  I  am  in 
formed  by  pilots,  that  as  far  as  the  Mississippi  water  can  be 
traced,  by  its  color,  into  the  gulf,  it  is  commonly  covered,  in  the 
spring,  with  dense  fog,  while  the  atmosphere  is  clear  on  each 
side.  These  fogs  are  generated  in  the  same  manner  as  ordinary 
clouds,  by  the  mixture  of  two  currents  of  air  of  different  degrees 
of  temperature.  The  river  cools  the  air  in  contact  with  its  sur 
face,  and  this  colder  layer  of  air  mingling  with  the  warmer  layer 
immediately  over  it,  causes  the  fog  to  begin  to  form  close  to  the 
water.  Hence  it  is  frequently  confined  to  the  bed  of  the  river, 
not  spreading  at  all  over  the  banks.  The  upper  surface  is  often 


114  PUMICE  ON  THE  MISSISSIPPI.          [CHAP.  XXIX. 

as  well  defined  as  if  it  were  a  bed  of  liquid,  instead  of  vapor,  and 
the  cabin,  roof,  and  funnels  of  a  steamer  may  be  seen  moving 
along  perfectly  imobscured,  while  the  hull  and  lower  parts  are 
as  completely  hidden  as  if  buried  beneath  the  turbid  water  on 
which  it  floats.  The  pilot,  too,  from  the  upper  deck,  can  often 
see  the  shore  and  landmarks  with  perfect  clearness,  and  steer  his 
vessel  with  safety,  while  the  passengers  on  the  cabin  deck  can  see 
nothing  beyond  the  sides  of  the  boat.  The  fogs  form  sometimes 
whatever  be  the  quarter  from  which  the  wind  blows,  but  are 
more  frequent  when  it  is  from  the  south,  as  the  air  is  then  the 
warmest.  Pieces  of  ice  rarely  floated  down  below  Natchez, 
350  miles  above  the  Balize  ;  but,  in  some  seasons,  they  have 
been  known  to  reach  the  gulf  itself. 

Next  morning  we  weighed  anchor,  and  passed  Fort  Jackson, 
formerly  Fort  St.  Philip,  thirty-three  miles  above  the  Balize. 
At  several  points,  where  we  stopped  for  passengers,  Dr.  Carpenter 
and  I  landed.  The  wood  consisted  of  live  oaks  bearing  bunches 
of  misletoe,  cypress  hung  with  Spanish  moss,  elms,  alders,  and  the 
red  maple  ;  also  a  species  of  myrica,  twenty  feet  high,  and  nu 
merous  wild  vines,  and  other  climbers,  on  the  trees.  At  Bayou 
Liere,  there  was  a  dense  growth  of  a  fan-palrn  (Cliatn&rops 
adansonia),  from  eight  to  thirteen  feet  high,  and  a  log-cabin 
thatched  with  its  leaves,  affording  good  shelter  from  the  heaviest 
rain.  On  the  ground  were  numerous  land-crabs  ( Gclasimus), 
called  here  fiddlers,  which  ran  into  their  holes  as  we  approached, 
and  a  few  small  lizards,  and  a  frog  (liana  pipicus),  which,  in 
the  night,  had  so  shrill  and  clear  a  note,  that  we  heard  it  two 
miles  off.  The  spring  is  so  backward  that  few  flowers  are  in 
bloom,  and  we  congratulated  ourselves  on  escaping  all  annoyance 
from  musquitoes.  At  the  water's  edge  I  picked  up  several  nuts 
of  the  Carya  aquatica,  and  many  pieces  of  pumice  as  large  as 
apples,  which  must  have  come  from  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and 
are  interesting,  as  reminding  one  of  the  fact,  that  volcanic  regions 
are  drained  by  the  western  tributaries  of  the  Mississippi.  But  I 
could  riot  find  a  single  empty  land-shell,  or  helix,  such  as  the 
Rhine  arid  many  other  rivers  bring  down,  and  am  told  that  none 
are  met  with  buried  in  the  recent  deposits  of  the  delta. 


CHAP.  XXIX.]  WILLOWS  ON  RIVER  BANK.  115 

The  storm  of  the  preceding  night  had  driven  many  sea-gulls 
up  the  river,  which  now  followed  our  steamer,  darting  down  to 
the  water  to  snatch  up  pieces  of  apple  or  meat,  or  whatever  we 
threw  to  them.  After  passing  Fort  Jackson,  all  trees  disap 
peared,  except  a  few  low  willows.  We  then  entered  that  long 
promontory,  or  tongue  of  land,  if  such  it  can  be  called,  which 
consists  simply  of  the  broad  river,  flowing  between  narrow  banks, 
protruded  for  so  many  miles  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  Each 
bank,  including  the  swamps  behind  it,  is  about  200  or  300 
yards  wide,  covered  with  dead  reeds,  among  which  we  saw  many 
tall,  white  cranes  feeding,  as  in  a  flooded  meadow,  and  as  con 
spicuous  as  sheep.  The  landscape  on  either  side  was  precisely 
similar,  and  most  singular,  consisting  of  blue  sky,  below  which 
were  the  dark-green  waters  of  the  Gulf,  lighted  up  by  a  brilliant 
sun  ;  then  the  narrow  band  of  swamp,  covered  with  dead  reeds, 
and,  in  the  foreground,  a  row  of  pale-green  willows,  scarcely  re 
flected  in  the  yellow,  turbid  water  of  the  river.  Occasionally 
large  merchant-vessels,  some  three-masted,  were  towed  up  by 
steam-tugs,  through  the  slack  water,  near  the  bank.  How  the 
river  can  thus  go  to  sea  as  it  were,  and  yet  continue  for  centuries 
to  preserve  the  same  channel,  in  spite  of  storms  and  hurricanes, 
which  have  more  than  once  in  the  last  hundred  years  caused  the 
waters  of  the  Gulf  to  break  over  its  banks,  seems,  at  first,  incom 
prehensible,  till  we  remember  that  we  have  here  a  powerful  body 
of  fresh  water  flowing  in  a  valley  more  than  a  hundred  feet  deep, 
with  vasts  mounds  of  mud  and  sand  on  each  side,  and  that  the 
sea  immediately  adjoining  is  comparatively  shallow. 

The  growth  of  willows  on  that  side  of  the  stream  where  the 
land  is  gaining  on  the  water,  is  often  so  formal  and  regular,  that 
they  look  like  an  artificial  plantation.  In  the  front  row  are 
young  saplings  just  rising  out  of  the  ground,  which  is  formed  of 
silt,  thrown  down  within  the  last  two  or  three  years.  Behind 
them  is  an  older  growth  from  four  to  eight  feet  high.  Still  far 
ther  back  is  seen  a  third  row  twenty-five  feet  high,  and  some 
times  in  this  manner  five  tiers,  each  overtopping  the  other,  show 
ing  the  gradual  formation  of  the  bank,  which  inclines  upward, 
because  the  soil  first  deposited  has  been  continually  raised  during 


116  THE  BALIZE.  [CHAP.  XXTX. 

annual  floods.  While  a  gain  of  land  is  thus  taking  place  on  one 
side,  the  river  is  cutting  into  and  undermining  the  opposite  bank, 
often  at  the  rate  of  ten  feet  or  more  in  a  year.  The  most  com 
mon  willow  is  Salix  nigra,  but  Dr.  Carpenter  tells  me  there  is 
a  rarer  species  (Salix  longifolia)  intermixed.  I  inquired  how  it 
happened  that  none  of  these  trees  were  old,  although  some  part 
of  the  banks  on  which  they  grew  are  known  to  be  of  considerable 
antiquity.  My  companion  said,  "  that  in  marshy  places  the 
Salix  nigra  is  not  a  long-lived  tree,  rarely  lasting  more  than 
twenty-five  or  thirty  years." 

At  length,  as  we  approached  the  Balize,  even  these  willows 
ceased  to  adorn  the  margin  of  the  river,  which  was  then  simply 
bounded  by  mounds  of  bare  sand.  Balize  means  beacon  in 
Spanish.  It  appears  that,  in  1744,  the  main  passage  or  en 
trance  of  the  river  was  at  three  small  islands,  which  then  existed 
where  this  pilot  station  now  stands.  It  continued  to  be  the 
principal  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  for  about  a  quarter  of  a  cen 
tury  later.  The  present  village,  called  the  Balize,  has  a  popu 
lation  of  more  than  450  souls,  among  whom  there  are  fifty  reg 
ularly  appointed  pilots,  and  many  more  who  are  aspirants  to  that 
office.  The  houses  are  built  on  piles  driven  into  the  mud-banks, 
and  the  greater  part  of  them  moored,  like  ships,  to  strong  anchors, 
whenever  a  hurricane  is  apprehended.  They  have  no  fear  of  the 
river,  which  scarcely  rises  six  inches  during  its  greatest  floods  ; 
but  some  winds  make  the  Gulf  rise  six  feet,  as  in  the  year  1812, 
and  so  fast  has  been  the  increase  of  the  population  of  late,  that 
there  are  scarcely  boats  enough,  as  one  of  the  pilots  confessed  to 
me,  to  save  the  people,  should  the  waters  rise  again  to  that  ele 
vation.  They  might,  however,  escape  on  drift  timber,  which 
abounds  here,  provided  they  had  time  to  choose  the  more  buoy 
ant  trees  ;  for  we  observed  many  large  rafts  of  wood  so  water 
logged  that  it  could  scarcely  swim,  and  the  slightest  weight 
would  sink  it. 

Although  the  chimney  of  our  steamer  was  not  lofty,  it  stood 
higher  than  the  houses  ;  but  in  order  to  obtain  a  wider  prospect, 
I  went  up  into  the  look-out,  a  wooden  frame-work  with  a  plat 
form,  where  the  pilots  were  watching  for  vessels,  with  their 


CHAP.  XXIX.]     LIGHTHOUSE— HOUSES  ON  PILES.  117 

telescopes.  From  this  elevation  we  saw,  far  to  the  south,  the 
lighthouse,  situated  at  what  is  now  the  principal  entrance  of  the 
river.  The  pilots  told  us,  that  the  old  lighthouse,  of  solid  brick 
work,  eighty-seven  feet  high,  erected  on  "the  south  point,"  was 
destroyed  by  a  hurricane  in  the  winter  of  1839.  The  keeper 
was  saved,  although  he  was  in  the  building  for  forty-eight  hours 
before  it  fell,  and,  during  the  whole  time,  it  vibrated  frightfully 
to  and  fro.  Much  of  the  low  banks,  then  bounding  the  river, 
were  swept  away,  but  have  since  been  restored. 

To  the  eastward  all  was  sea ;  turning  to  the  north,  or  toward 
New  Orleans  and  the  delta,  I  could  discover  no  more  signs  of 
the  existence  of  a  continent  than  when  looking  southward  or 
toward  the  lighthouse.  In  the  west,  Bird  Island,  covered  with 
trees,  was  more  conspicuous.  An  old  pilot  told  us  it  was  inhab» 
ited  by  large  deer,  and  was  "very  high  land."  "How  high 
above  the  sea?"  said  I.  "Three  or  four  feet,"  he  replied  ;  and 
as  if  so  startling  an  assertion  required  the  confirmation  of  several 
witnesses,  he  appealed  to  the  bystanders,  who  assented,  saying, 
"It  is  all  that,  for  it  was  only  just  covered  during  the  great  hur 
ricane."  And  well  may  such  an  elevation  command  respect  in 
a  town  where  all  the  foundations  of  the  houses  are  under  water, 
and  where  the  value  of  each  site  is  measured  by  the  number  of 
inches  or  feet  within  which  a  shoal  rises  to  the  surface  of  the  sea. 

It  was  a  curious  sight  to  behold  seventy  or  more  dwellings, 
erected  on  piles,  among  reeds  half  as  high  as  the  houses,  and 
which  often  grew  close  to  them,  most  of  the  buildings  communi 
cating  with  an  outhouse  by  a  wooden  bridge  thrown  over  a 
swarnp  or  pool  of  water,  sometimes  fresh  and  sometimes  brackish. 
On  one  side  of  the  main  channel,  which  our  steamer  had  entered, 
was  built  a  long  wooden  platform,  made  of  planks,  resting  on 
piles,  which  served  for  a  promenade.  There  we  saw  the  pilots' 
wives  and  daughters,  and  among  them  the  belles  of  the  place, 
well  dressed,  and  accompanied  by  their  pet  dogs,  taking  their 
evening  walk. 

March  1 . — Having  engaged  a  boat,  Dr.  Carpenter  and  I  set 
out  on  an  excursion  to  examine  the  bayous  or  channels  between 
the  mud  banks.  The  first  stroke  of  the  oars  carried  us  into  the 


118  REEDS,  SHELLS,  AND  BIRDS.          [CHAP.  XXIX. 

midst  of  a  dense  crop  of  tall  reeds.  This  plant  (Arundo  phrag- 
mitis)  is  an  annual,  and  inhabits  fresh-water  swamps,  yet  we 
found  many  dead  barnacles  attached  to  them,  showing  that,  in 
the  course  of  the  year,  when  the  river  is  low,  the  salt  water  pre 
vails  here,  so  that  these  marine  cirripeda  have  time  to  be  devel 
oped  from  the  embryo  state,  and  to  flourish  for  some  months,  till 
they  are  killed  by  the  returning  fresh  water.  We  could  only 
detect  one  shell  inhabiting  these  mud  banks,  a  species  of  Neritina. 
But  I  am  told  that  the  Gnathodon  is  found  in  the  brackish 
water,  a  short  distance  beyond.  It  was  also  stated,  that  about 
eighteen  miles  beyond  the  southwest  and  northwest  passes,  or 
extreme  mouths  of  the  river,  there  are  banks  of  sea-shells  of 
various  species.  With  the  arundo  was  intermixed  a  tall  rush  or 
reed-mace  ( Typha),  somewhat  resembling  the  bulrush.  We  got 
out  and  walked  on  these  banks,  on  which  fresh  water  was  stand 
ing,  so  cold  and  benumbing  to  the  hands,  that  we  had  no  fear  of 
musquitoes.  At  almost  any  other  season  these  insects  would  have 
swarmed  here,  and  tormented  us  greatly.  Even  the  alligators 
were  invisible,  though  some  of  them  had  been  out  a  few  days 
before.  Many  paths,  recently  trodden  by  racoons,  were  seen  to 
traverse  the  reeds,  and  there  were  foot-prints  of  the  civet  or 
mink,  and  of  wild  cats  and  water-rats  in  abundance.  We  put 
up  several  white  herons,  and  many  snipes  and  curlews,  and  the 
boat-tailed  grackle  (Quisqualus). 

At  length  returning  to  the  boat,  we  soon  reached  a  channel 
blocked  up  with  drift  wood  in  every  stage  of  decay,  some  fresh 
and  sound,  but  most  of  it  rotten  and  water-logged.  We  walked 
for  hundreds  of  yards  over  natural  rafts  of  this  timber,  the  quan 
tity  of  which,  they  say,  has  sensibly  diminished  since  the  steamers 
began  to  consume  so  much  fuel,  for  it  is  now  intercepted  in  large 
quantities  before  it  gets  to  New  Orleans,  and  cut  into  logs  for  the 
steamers. 

We  were  desirous  of  obtaining  accurate  information  from  the 
pilots  respecting  the  recent  advance  of  land  on  the  Gulf,  hoping 
from  such  data  to  calculate  the  time  when  the  mouths  of  the 
river  were  at  New  Orleans.  But  I  soon  found  that  materials 
for  such  a  calculation  are  not  to  be  procured. 


CHAP.  XXIX.]  CHARLEVOIX'S  MAPS.  U9 

Dr.  Carpenter  had  brought  with  him  Chaiievoix's  maps  of  the 
river  mouths  or  "passes,"  published  112  years  ago,  and  referring 
to  the  state  of  things  about  130  years  ago.  We  were  surprised 
to  find  how  accurately  this  survey  represents,  for  the  most  part, 
the  number,  shape,  and  form  of  the  mud-banks  and  bayous,  or 
channels,  as  they  now  exist  around  the  Balize.  The  pilots,  to 
whom  we  showed  the  charts,  admitted  that  one  might  imagine 
them  to  have  been  constructed  last  year,  were  it  not  that  bars 
had  been  thrown  across  the  mouths  of  every  bayou,  because  they 
are  no  longer  scoured  out  as  they  used  to  be  when  the  principal 
discharge  of  the  Mississippi  was  at  this  point.  We  then  went 
within  a  mile  of  the  old  Spanish  building,  called  the  Magazine, 
correctly  laid  down  in  Charlevoix's  map,  and  now  600  yards 
nearer  the  sea  than  formerly,  showing  that  the  mud-banks  have 
given  way,  or  that  the  salt  water  has  encroached  in  times  when 
a  smaller  body  of  fresh  water  has  been  bringing  down  its  sedi 
ment  to  this  point. 

The  southwest  pass  is  now  the  principal  entrance  of  the 
Mississippi,  and  till  lately  there  was  eighteen  feet  water  in  it, 
but  the  channel  has  grown  shallower  by  two  feet.  When  it  is 
considered  that  a  fleet  of  the  largest  men-of-war  could  sail  for  a 
thousand  rniles  into  the  interior,  were  it  not  for  the  bars  thrown 
across  the  entrance  of  each  of  the  mouths  or  passes,  one  can  not 
wonder  that  efforts  should  have  been  made  to  deepen  the  main 
channel  artificially.  But  no  human  undertaking  seems  more 
hopeless;  for,  after  a  great  expenditure  of  money  in  1838  and 
1839,  and  the  excavation,  by  means  of  powerful  steam  dredges, 
of  a  deep  passage,  the  river  filled  up  the  entire  cavity  with  mud 
during  a  single  flood. 

One  of  the  chief  pilots  told  us,  that  since  1839,  or  in  six  years, 
he  had  seen  an  advance  of  the  prominent  mouths  of  the  river  of 
more  than  a  mile.  But  Linton,  the  oldest  and  most  experienced 
of  them,  admitted  that  the  three  passes  called  the  northeast, 
southeast,  and  southwest,  had  in  the  last  twenty-four  years  only 
advanced  one  mile  each.  Even  this  fact  would  furnish  no  ground 
for  estimating  the  general  rate  at  which  the  delta  advances,  for 
on  each  of  these  narrow  strips  of  land,  or  river-banks,  the  sea 


120  ANNUAL  INCREASE!  OF  DELTA.         [CHAP.  XXIX. 

would  make  extensive  inroads  whenever  the  main  channel  of 
discharge  is  altered  and  there  is  a  local  relaxation  of  the  river's 
power.  Every  year,  as  soon  as  the  flood  season  is  over,  the  tide 
enters  far  up  each  channel,  scouring  out  mud  and  sand,  and 
sweeping  away  many  a  bar,  formed  during  the  period  of  inunda 
tion.  Bringier,  an  experienced  surveyor  of  New  Orleans,  told 
me,  that  on  revisiting  the  mouths  of  the  Mississippi  after  an 
interval  of  forty  years,  he  was  surprised  to  observe  how  station 
ary  their  leading  features  had  remained.  Mr.  Dunbar,  also  an 
engineer  in  great  practice  in  Louisiana,  assured  me  that  on  com 
paring  the  soundings  lately  made  by  him  with  those  laid  down 
in  the  French  maps  of  Sieur  Diron,  published  in  1740,  he  found 
the  changes  to  be  quite  inconsiderable.  On  questioning  the 
pilots  on  the  subject,  they  stated  that  the  changes  from  year  to 
year  are  great,  but  are  no  measure  whatever  of  those  worked  out 
in  a  long  period,  for  there  seems  to  be  a  tendency  in  the  action 
of  the  tides  and  river  to  restore  the  old  soundings. 

Captain  Grahame,  also  a  government  surveyor,  on  comparing 
the  northeast  pass  with  the  charts  made  a  century  before,  found 
it  had  not  advanced  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  and  that  in 
the  same  interval  the  principal  variations  at  the  pass  a  Loutre 
had  consisted  in  the  filling  up  of  some  bayous.  Even  if  we  could 
assume  that  the  progress  of  the  whole  delta  in  twenty-five  years 
was  as  great  as  that  assigned  by  Linton  to  one  or  two  narrow 
channels  and  banks,  it  would  have  taken  several  thousand  years 
for  the  river  to  advance  from  New  Orleans  to  the  Balize  ;  but 
when  we  take  into  our  account  the  whole  breadth  of  the  delta,  or 
that  part  of  it  which  has  advanced  beyond  the  general  coast-line 
above  100  miles  across,  we  must  allow  an  enormous  period  of 
time  for  its  accumulation. 

The  popular  belief  in  New  Orleans,  that  the  progress  of  the 
banks  near  the  mouths  of  the  river  has  been  very  rapid,  arises 
partly  from  the  nature  of  the  evidence  given  by  witnesses  in  the 
law  courts,  in  cases  of  insurance.  When  a  ship  is  lost,  the  usual 
line  of  defense  on  the  part  of  the  pilots,  whether  for  themselves 
or  their  friends,  is  to  show  that  new  sand-bars  are  forming,  and 
shoals  shifting  their  places  so  fast,  that  no  blame  attaches  to  any 


CHAP.  XXIX.]  TIDES  AND  CURRENTS.  121 

one  for  running  a  vessel  aground.  To  exaggerate  rather  than 
underrate,  the  quantity  of  sediment  newly  deposited  by  the  river, 
is  the  bias  of  each  witness,  although  their  statements  may  in  the 
main  be  correct ;  for  in  the  contest  annually  carried  on  between 
the  river  and  the  sea,  there  is  unquestionably  a  vast  amount  of 
destruction  and  renovation  of  mud-banks  and  sand  bars.  In 
these  changes  the  action  of  the  tide,  and  the  power  of  the  break 
ers  during  storms,  and  a  strong  marine  current,  all  play  their  part. 
There  seem  to  be  well-authenticated  accounts  of  anchors  cast 
up  from  a  depth  of  several  fathoms  near  the  mouths  of  the  river, 
and  heavy  stones  sunk  sixteen  feet  deep,  and  found  afterward  high 
and  dry  on  shoals.  The  ballast  also  of  several  wrecked  vessels, 
the  submergence  of  which,  in  two  or  three  fathoms  water,  had 
been  ascertained,  have  in  like  manner  been  thrown  up,  above 
high  water  mark,  on  newly  formed  islands. 

All  the  pilots  agree,  that  when  the  Mississippi  is  at  its  height, 
it  pours  several  streams  of  fresh  water,  tinged  with  yellow  sedi 
ment,  twelve  or  more  miles  into  the  gulf,  beyond  its  mouths. 
These  streams  floating  over  the  heavier  salt  water,  spread  out 
into  broad  superficial  sheets  or  layers,  which  the  keels  of  vessels 
plough  through,  turning  up  a  furrow  of  clear  blue  water,  form 
ing  a  dark  streak  in  the  middle  of  the  ship's  wake.  I  infer, 
therefore,  that  both  in  the  summer,  when  the  swollen  river  is 
turbid  and  depositing  mud,  and  in  the  winter,  when  the  sea  is 
making  reprisals  on  the  delta,  there  is  a  large  amount  of  fine  sed 
iment  dispersed  far  and  wide,  and  carried  by  currents  to  the  deeper 
and  more  distant  parts  of  the  Gulf.  To  this  dispersing  power  I 
shall  recall  the  reader's  attention  in  a  future  chapter,  when  dis 
cussing  the  probable  antiquity  of  the  delta. 

March  2. — We  returned  to  New  Orleans  in  the  same  steamer. 
It  is  remarkable  that  for  more  than  150  miles  above  the  Balize, 
there  is  only  one  of  those  great  bends  in  the  course  of  the  Missis 
sippi,  which  are  so  general  a  character  of  its  channel  north  of 
New  Orleans.  The  exception  is  the  great  sweep  called  the  English 
Turn.  Mr.  Forshey  imputes  this  difference  in  the  shape  of  the 
bed  of  the  river  to  the  distinct  circumstances  under  which  a 
stream  is  placed  when  it  shapes  out  its  course  through  a  deposit 
VOL.  TI. — F 


122  SUGAR-MILL.  [CHAP.  XXIX, 

raised  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  or  when  it  is  forming  its  bed, 
as  to  the  south  of  New  Orleans,  below  the  sea-level. 

Above  the  English  Turn,  and  within  a  few  miles  of  the  me 
tropolis,  I  landed  on  the  famous  battle-ground,  where  the  English, 
in  1815,  were  defeated,  and  saw  the  swamp  through  which  the 
weary  soldiers  were  required  to  drag  their  boats,  on  emerging  from 
which,  they  were  fired  upon  by  the  enemy,  advantageously 
placed  on  the  higher  ground,  or  river-bank.  The  blunder  of  the 
British  commander  is  sufficiently  obvious  even  to  one  unskilled  in 
military  affairs.  They  are  now  strengthening  the  levee  at  this 
point,  for  the  Mississippi  is  threatening  to  pour  its  resistless  cur 
rent  through  this  battle-ground,  as,  in  the  delta  of  the  Ganges, 
the  Hoogly  is  fast  sweeping  away  the  celebrated  field  of  Plassy. 

At  one  of  the  landings  on  the  left  bank  of  the  river,  Dr.  Car 
penter  went  with  me  to  see  a  large  sugar-mill,  in  the  management 
of  which  an  Anglo-American  proprietor  had  introduced  all  the 
latest  improvements.  There  was  machinery,  worked  by  steam, 
for  pressing  the  j  uice  out  of  the  sugar-canes,  and  large  boilers  and 
coolers,  with  ducts  for  the  juice  to  flow  down  into  enormous  vats. 

We  heard  much  of  the  injury  done  to  the  sugar  plantations 
and  gardens  by  the  cocoa,  or  nut  grass  (Cyperus  hydra),  which 
I  had  seen  springing  up  even  in  the  streets  of  New  Orleans  be 
tween  the  pavement  stones.  It  increases  by  suckers  as  well  as 
by  seed  ;  but  it  is  only  of  late  years  that  it  has  ravaged  Louisi 
ana.  If  horses  be  brought  from  an  estate  where-  this  plant  is 
known  to  exist,  their  hoofs  are  carefully  cleaned,  lest  the  soil,  ad 
hering  to  them  should  introduce  some  fibers  or  tubers  of  this 
scourge. 

Although  impatient  to  return  to  the  city,  we  could  riot  help 
being  amused  when  we  learnt  that  our  boat  and  all  its  passengers 
were  to  be  detained  till  some  hogsheads  of  sugar  were  put  on 
board,  some  of  the  hoops  of  which  had  got  loose.  A  cooper  had 
been  sent  for,  who  was  to  hammer  them  on.  "  You  may  there 
fore  go  over  the  sugar-mill  at  your  leisure."  I  observed  that  all 
whose  native  tongue  was  English,  were  indignant  at  the  small 
value  which  the  captain  seemed  to  set  on  their  time ;  but  the 
Creole  majority,  who  spoke  French,  were  in  excellent  humor.  A 


CHAP.  XXIX. ]     FRENCH  AND  ANGLO  AMERICANS.  123 

party  of  them  was  always  playing  whist  in  the  cabin,  and  the  rest 
looking1  on.  When  summoned  to  disembark  at  their  respective 
landings,  they  were  in  no  haste  to  leave  us,  wishing  rather  to 
finish  the  rubber.  The  contrast  of  the  two  races  was  truly  di 
verting,  just  what  I  had  seen  in  Canada.  Whenever  we  were 
signaled  by  a  negro,  and  told  to  halt  "till  Master  was  ready," 
I  was  sure  to  hear  some  anecdote  from  an  Anglo-Saxon  passen 
ger  in  disparagement  of  the  Creoles.  "North  of  New  Orleans," 
said  one  of  my  companions,  "  the  American  captains  are  begin 
ning  to  discipline  the  French  proprietors  into  more  punctual 
habits.  Last  summer,  a  senator  of  Louisiana  having  forgotten 
his  great-coat,  sent  back  his  black  servant  to  bring  it  from  his 
villa,  expecting  a  first-rate  steamer,  with  several  hundred  people 
on  board,  to  wait  ten  or  fifteen  minutes  for  him.  When,  to  his 
surprise,  the  boat  started,  he  took  the  captain  to  task  in  great 
wrath,  threatening  never  to  enter  his  vessel  again." 

My  attention  was  next  called  to  the  old-fashioned  make  of  the 
French  ploughs.  "  On  this  river,  as  on  the  St.  Lawrence,"  said 
an  American,  "the  French  had  a  fair  start  of  us  by  more  than  a 
century.  They  obtained  possession  of  all  the  richest  lands,  yet 
are  now  fairly  distanced  in  the  race.  When  they  get  into  debt, 
and  sell  a  farm  on  the  highest  land  next  the  levee,  they  do  not 
migrate  to  a  new  region  farther  west,  but  fall  back  somewhere 
into  the  low  grounds  near  the  swamp.  There  they  retain  all 
their  antiquated  usages,  seeming  to  hate  innovation.  To  this  day 
they  remain  rooted  in  those  parts  of  Louisiana  where  the  mother 
country  first  planted  her  two  colonies  two  centuries  ago,  and  they 
have  never  swarmed  off,  or  founded  a  single  new  settlement. 
They  never  set  up  a  steam-engine  for  their  sugar-mills,  have  tak 
en  no  part  in  the  improvement  of  steam  navigation,  and  when  a 
railway  was  proposed  in  Opelousas,  they  opposed  it,  because  they 
feared  it  would  'let  the  Yankees  in  upon  them.'  When  a  rich 
proprietor  was  asked  why  he  did  not  send  his  boy  to  college,  he 
replied,  <  Because  it  would  cost  me  450  dollars  a  year,  and  I  shall 
be  able  to  leave  my  son  three  more  negroes  when  I  die,  by  not 
incurring  that  expense.'  '  Dr.  Carpenter  informed  me,  that  the 
Legislature  of  Louisiana  granted  in  1834,  a  charter  for  a  medi- 


121  FRENCH  AND  ANGLO-AMERICANS.      [CHAP.  XXIX. 

cal  college  in  the  Second  Municipality,  which  now,  in  the  year 
1846,  numbers  one  hundred  students,  and  is  about  to  become  the 
medical  department  of  a  new  university.  The  Creoles  were  so 
far  stimulated  by  this  example,  as  to  apply  also  for  a  charter  for  a 
French  College  in  the  First  Municipality.  It  was  granted  in  the 
same  year,  but  has  remained  a  dead  letter  to  this  day. 

One  of  the  passengers  had  been  complaining  to  me,  that  a  cre- 
ole  always  voted  for  a  Creole  candidate  at  an  election,  however 
much  he  differed  from  him  in  political  opinions,  rather  than  sup 
port  an  Anglo-Saxon  of  his  own  party.  I  could  not  help  saying 
that  I  should  be  tempted  to  do  the  same,  if  I  were  of  French  ori 
gin,  and  heard  my  race  as  much  run  down  as  I  had  done  since 
I  left  the  Balize. 

A  large  portion  of  the  first  French  settlers  in  Louisiana  came 
from  Canada,  and  I  have  no  doubt  Gayarre  is  right  in  affirming 
that  they  have  remained  comparatively  stationary,  because  they 
carried  out  with  them,  from  the  mother  country,  despotic  maxims 
of  government,  coupled  with  extreme  intolerance  in  their  religious 
opinions.  The  bigotry  which  checked  the  growth  of  the  infant 
colony  was  signally  displayed,  when  Louis  XIV.  refused  to  per 
mit  400  Huguenot  families,  who  had  fled  to  South  Carolina, 
after  the  revocation  of  the  edict  of  Nantes,  to  be  incorporated 
among  the  new  settlers  on  the  Mississippi.^ 

Notwithstanding  the  marked  inclination  of  the  Anglo-Saxons 
to  seek  no  other  cause  than  that  of  race  to  account  for  the  alleged 
stationary  condition  of  the  Creoles,  I  was  glad  to  find  that  one  of 
the  most  intelligent  citizens  of  New  Orleans  took  a  more  hopeful 
and  less  fatalist  view  of  the  matter.  «  I  observe,"  he  said,  "  that 
those  French  emigrants  who  have  come  out  to  us  lately,  espe 
cially  the  Parisians,  are  pushing  their  way  in  the  world  with  as 
much  energy  as  any  of  our  race  ;  so  I  conclude  that  the  first 
settlers  in  Canada  and  Louisiana  quitted  Europe  too  soon,  before 
the  great  Revolution  of  1792  had  turned  the  Frenchman  into  a 
progressive  being." 

Among  the  Creoles  with  whom  I  came  in  contact,  I  saw  many 
whose  manners  were  most  polite  and  agreeable,  and  I  felt  as  I 
*  Gayarre,  Hisloire  de  la  Louisiane,  torn.  i.  p.  69. 


CHAP.  XXIX.]  NEGROES  IN  LOUISIANA.  125 

had  done  toward  the  Canadian  "  habitants,"  that  I  should  have 
had  more  pleasure  in  associating  with  them  than  with  a  large 
portion  of  their  Anglo-American  rivals,  who,  from  a  greater  read 
iness  to  welcome  new  ideas,  are  more  likely  to  improve,  and  will 
probably  outstrip  them  in  knowledge  and  power. 

When  we  sat  down  to  dinner  in  the  cabin,  one  of  the  Creoles, 
of  very  genteel  appearance,  was  so  dark  that  I  afterward  asked 
an  American,  out  of  curiosity,  whether  he  thought  my  neighbor 
at  table  had  a  dash  of  negro  blood  in  his  veins.  He  said  he  had 
been  thinking  so,  and  it  had  made  him  feel  very  uncomfortable 
during  dinner.  I  was  so  unprepared  for  this  manifestation  of 
anti-negro  feeling,  that  I  had  difficulty  in  keeping  my  counte 
nance.  The  same  messmate  then  told  me  that  the  slaves  had 
lately  risen  on  an  estate  we  were  just  passing,  on  the  right  bank 
of  the  river,  below  New  Orleans,  but  had  been  quickly  put  down. 
He  said  that  the  treatment  of  them  had  greatly  improved  within 
the  last  eight  years,  keeping  pace  steadily  with  the  improved  civ 
ilization  of  the  whites.  The  Creoles,  he  said,  fed  their  negroes 
well,  but  usually  gave  them  no  beds,  but  blankets  only  to  lie 
down  upon.  They  were  kind  in  their  feelings  toward  them  ;  but, 
owing  to  their  improvident  habits,  they  secured  no  regular  med 
ical  attendance,  and  lost  more  black  children  than  the  American 
planters. 

I  afterward  remarked  that  the  growth  of  New  Orleans  seemed 
to  show  that  a  large  city  may  increase  and  flourish  in  a  slave 
state  ;  but  Dr.  Carpenter  arid  Mr.  Wilde  both  observed,  that  the 
white  race  has  been  superseding  the  negroes.  Ten  years  ago, 
say  they,  all  the  draymen  of  New  Orleans,  a  numerous  class,  and 
the  cabmen,  were  colored.  Now,  they  are  nearly  all  white. 
The  servants  at  the  great  hotels  were  formerly  of  the  African, 
now  they  are  of  the  European  race.  Nowhere  is  the  jealousy 
felt  by  the  Irish  toward  the  negroes  more  apparent.  According 
to  some  estimates,  in  a  permanently  resident  population  not  much 
exceeding  80,000,  there  are  only  22,000  colored  persons,  and  a 
large  proportion  of  these  are  free. 

Over  a  door  in  the  principal  street  of  New  Orleans  we  read 
the  inscription,  "Negroes  on  sale  here."  It  is  natural  that 


126  NEGROES  IN  LOUISIANA.  [CHAP.  XXIX. 

southerners  should  not  be  aware  how  much  a  foreigner  is  shocked 
at  this  public  mode  of  treating  a  large  part  of  the  population  as 
mere  chattels. 

The  following  is  an  advertisement  copied  verbatim  from  a 
Natchez  paper : — 

"NINETY  NEGROES  FOR  SALE. 

"I  have  about  ninety  negroes,  just  arrived  from  Richmond, 
Virginia,  consisting  of  field  hands,  house  servants,  carriage  drivers, 
two  seamstresses,  several  very  fine  cooks  (females),  and  one  very 
fine  neat  cook  (male),  one  blacksmith,  one  carpenter,  and  some 
excellent  mules  and  excellent  wagons  arid  harness,  and  one  very 
fine  riding  horse — all  of  which  I  will  sell  at  the  most  reasonable 
prices.  I  have  made  arrangements  in  Richmond,  Va.,  to  have 
regular  shipments  every  month,  and  intend  to  keep  a  good  stock 
on  hand  of  every  description  of  servants  during  the  season. 

"  JOHN  D.  JAMES. 

"Natchez,  October  16-tf." 

In  a  St.  Louis  paper,  I  read,  in  the  narrative  of  a  steamboat 
collision,  the  following  passage  : — "  We  learn  that  the  passengers, 
with  few  exceptions,  lost  all  their  effects  ; — one  gentleman  in 
particular  lost  nine  negroes  (who  were  on  deck)  arid  fourteen 
horses." 

Among  the  laws  recently  enacted  in  Louisiana,  I  was  glad  to 
see  one  to  prevent  persons  of  color  exiled  from  other  states,  or 
transported  for  some  offense,  from  becoming  citizens.  In  spite  of 
such  statutes,  the  negro-exporting  portions  of  the  Union  will  al 
ways  make  the  newer  states  play  in  some  degree  the  part  of  penal 
settlements. 

Free  blacks  are  allowed  to  be  witnesses  in  the  courts  here,  in 
cases  where  white  men  are  concerned,  a  privilege  they  do  not  en 
joy  in  some  free  states,  as  in  Indiana  ;  but  they  do  not  allow 
free  blacks  to  come  and  settle  here,  and  say  they  have  been  com 
pelled  to  adopt  this  precaution  by  the  abolitionists. 

An  intelligent  Louisianian  said  to  me,  «Were  we  to  emanci 
pate  our  negroes  as  suddenly  as  your  government  did  the  West 


CHAP.  XXIX.  ]  NEGROES  IN  LOUISIANA. 


Indians,  they  would  be  a  doomed  race  ;  but  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  white  labor  is  more  profitable  even  in  this  climate."  "  Then, 
why  do  you  not  encourage  it  ?"  I  asked.  "  It  must  be  the  work 
of  time,"  he  replied  ;  "  the  prejudices  of  owners  have  to  be  over 
come,  and  the  sugar  and  cotton  crop  is  easily  lost,  if  not  taken  in 
at  once  when  ripe  ;  the  canes  being  damaged  by  a  slight  frost, 
and  the  cotton  requiring  to  be  picked  dry  as  soon  as  mature,  and 
being  ruined  by  rain.  Very  lately  a  planter,  five  miles  below 
New  Orleans,  having  resolved  to  dispense  with  slave  labor,  hired 
one  hundred  Irish  arid  German  emigrants  at  very  high  wages. 
In  the  middle  of  the  harvest  they  all  struck  for  double  pay.  No 
others  were  to  be  had,  and  it  was  impossible  to  purchase  slaves 
in  a  few  days.  In  that  short  time  he  lost  produce  to  the  value 
of  ten  thousand  dollars." 

A  rich  merchant  of  Pennsylvania,  who  was  boarding  at  the 
St.  Louis  Hotel,  showed  me  a  letter  he  had  just  received  from 
Philadelphia,  in  which  his  correspondent  expressed  a  hope  that 
his  feelings  had  not  often  been  shocked  by  the  sufferings  of  the 
slaves.  "  Doubtless,"  said  the  writer,  "  you  must  have  often 
witnessed  great  horrors."  The  Philadelphian  then  told  me,  that 
after  residing  here  several  years,  and  having  a  strong  feeling  of 
the  evils  as  well  as.  impolicy  of  slavery,  he  had  never  been  forced 
to  see  nor  hear  of  any  castigatiori  of  a  slave  in  any  establishment 
with  which  he  had  intercourse.  "  Once,"  he  added,  "  in  New 
Jersey  (a  free  state)  he  remembered  having  seen  a  free  negro  child 
whipped  by  its  master."  The  tale  of  suffering  to  which  his 
Pennsylvanian  correspondent  particularly  alluded,  was  not  authen 
tic,  or,  at  least,  grossly  exaggerated.  It  had  been  copied  from 
the  abolitionist  papers  of  the  north  into  the  southern  papers, 
sometimes  with  and  sometimes  without  comment  ;  for  such  libels 
are  hailed  with  pleasure  by  the  Perpetualists  as  irritating  the  feel- 
ino-  of  that  class  of  slave-owners  who  are  most  anxious  to  advance 

C5 

the  welfare  arid  education  of  the  negroes. 

We  ascertained  that  Miss  Martirieau's  story  of  Madame  Lalau- 
rie's  cruelty  to  her  slaves  was  perfectly  correct.  Instances  of  such 
savage  conduct  are  rare,  as  was  indeed  sufficiently  proved  by  the 
indignation  which  it  excited  in  the  whole  city.  A  New  England 


123  NEGROES  IN  LOUISIANA.  [CHAP.  XXIX, 

lady  settled  here  told  me,  she  had  promised  to  set  free  her  two 
female  colored  servants  at  her  death.  I  asked  if  she  had  no  fear 
of  their  poisoning  her.  "  On  the  contrary,"  she  replied,  "  they 
would  be  in  despair  were  I  to  die." 

One  of  the  families  which  we  visited  at  New  Orleans  was 
plunged  in  grief  by  the  death  of  a  little  negro  girl,  suddenly  car 
ried  off  by  a  brain  fever,  in  the  house.  She  was  the  daughter  of 
a  domestic  servant,  and  the  sorrow  for  her  loss  was  such  as  might 
have  been  felt  for  a  relation. 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

Voyage  from  New  Orleans  to  Port  Hudson. — The  Coast.  Villas,  and  Gar 
dens. — Cotton  Steamers. — Flat  Boats. — Crevasses  and  Inundations. — 
Decrease  of  Steamboat  Accidents. — Snag-Boat. — Musquitoes. — Natural 
Rafts. — Bartram  on  buried  Trees  at  Port  Hudson. — Dr.  Carpenter's  Ob 
servations. — Landslip  described. — Ancient  Subsidence  in  the  Delta  fol 
lowed  bv  an  upward  Movement,  deducible  from  the  buried  Forest  at 
Port  Hudson. 

March  10,  1846. — ON  leaving  New  Orleans,  I  made  ar 
rangements  for  stopping  to  examine  the  bluff  at  Port  Hudson, 
160  miles  up  the  river,  where  I  was  to  land  in  the  night,  from 
the  Rainbow  steamer,  while  my  wife  started  in  another  boat, 
the  Magnolia,  to  go  direct  to  the  more  distant  port  of  Nat 
chez.  If  a  lady  is  recommended  to  the  captain  of  one  of  these 
vessels  she  feels  herself  under  good  protection,  and  needs  no  other 

escort ;  but  Mr.  Wilde  introduced  my  wife  to  Judge ,  who 

kindly  undertook  to  take  charge  of  her,  and  see  her  to  the  hotel 
at  Natchez.  The  Rainbow  ascended  the  river  at  the  rate  of 
eleven  miles  an  hour,  keeping  near  the  bank,  where  the  force  of 
the  current  was  broken  by  eddies,  or  where  the  backwater  was 
sometimes  running  in  our  favor.  Occasionally  her  speed  waa 
suddenly  checked,  when  it  became  necessary  to  cross  the  stream 
on  reaching  a  point  where  the  current  was  setting  with  its  full 
force  against  the  bank  along  which  we  had  been  sailing.  In 
spite  of  such  delays,  the  rate  of  going  up  is  only  one-third  less 
than  going  down  the  stream.  The  recent  introduction  of  sep 
arate  engines  to  work  each  of  the  wheels  greatly  economizes 
the  time  spent  in  the  landing  of  passengers.  The  boat  may  be 
turned  round  or  kept  stationary  with  more  facility,  when  each 
wheel  can  be  moved  in  an  opposite  direction.  In  this  part  of 
the  Mississippi,  and  at  this  season,  the  points  where  passengers 
can  be  set  ashore  are  very  numerous,  the  water  being  often  forty 
feet  deep  close  to  the  banks  But  there  are  certain  regular  places 


130  THE  COAST— FLAT  BOATS.  [CHAP.  XXX. 

of  disembarkation,  the  approach  to  which  is  announced  by  ringing 
a  large  bell. 

A  great  proportion  of  the  trees  are  still  leafless,  the  willows, 
cypresses,  and  red  maples  being  no  more  advanced  than  I  had 
seen  them  at  Mobile  in  the  third  week  of  February.  The  gar 
dens  continue  to  be  gay  with  the  blossoms  of  the  peach  and  plum- 
trees.  As  our  vessel  wound  its  way  round  one  great  bend  after 
another,  we  often  saw  directly  before  us  the  dome  of  the  St.  Charles 
and  the  tower  of  St.  Patrick's,  and  were  sailing  toward  them  after 
I  thought  we  had  already  taken  a  last  look  at  them  far  astern. 
In  the  first  seven  hours  we  made  sixty  miles,  including  stoppages. 
We  were  passing  along  what  is  called  "  the  coast,"  or  that  part 
of  the  Mississippi  which  is  protected  by  a  levee  above  the  metrop 
olis.  A  great  many  handsome  country  houses,  belonging  to  the 
proprietors  of  sugar  plantations,  give  a  cultivated  aspect  to  this 
region,  and  the  scenery  is  enlivened  by  a  prodigious  number  of 
schooners  and  large  steamers  sailing  down  from  the  Ohio  arid  Red 
rivers,  heavily  laden  with  cotton.  This  cotton  has  already  been 
much  compressed  when  made  up  into  bales  ;  but  it  undergoes,  at 
New  Orleans,  still  greater  pressure,  by  steam  power,  to  diminish 
its  bulk  before  embarkation  for  Liverpool. 

The  captain  calculated  that  within  the  first  seven  hours  after 
we  left  the  wharf,  in  the  Second  Municipality,  we  had  passed  no 
less  than  ten  thousand  bales  going  down  the  river,  each  bale 
worth  thirty-five  dollars  at  present  prices,  and  the  value  of  the 
whole,  therefore,  amounting  to  350.000  dollars,  or  73,500/. 
sterling.  All  this  merchandize  would  reach  the  great  emporium 
within  twenty  hours  of  the  time  of  our  passing  it.  Before  we 
lost  sight  of  the  city,  we  saw  a  large  flat  boat  drifting  down  in 
the  middle  of  the  current,  steered  by  means  of  a  large  oar  at  the 
stern.  It  was  laden  with  farm  produce,  and  had  come  about 
two  thousand  miles,  from  near  Pittsburg,  on  the  Ohio.  I  had 
first  observed  this  kind  of  craft  on  my  way  to  the  Balize,  meet 
ing  near  Fort  Jackson  a  boat  without  a  single  inmate,  thirty-five 
feet  long,  and  built  of  stout  planks,  with  a  good  roof.  It  was 
drifting  along  on  its  way  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  the  owner  hav 
ing  abandoned  it  after  selling  his  corn  and  other  stores  at  the 


CHAP.  XXX.]  FLAT  BOATS.  131 

great  city.  He  himself  had  probably  returned  to  the  north  in  a 
steamer  ;  having  found  the  substantial  floating  mansion,  in  which 
he  had  lived  for  several  weeks  or  months,  quite  unsaleable,  al 
though  containing  so  much  good  timber  shaped  into  planks.  It 
is  the  duty  of  the  wharfinger  at  New  Orleans  to  see  that  the 
river  is  not  blocked  up  with  such  incumbrances,  and  to  set  them 
adrift.  After  wandering  for  several  hundred  miles  in  the  Gulf, 
they  are  sometimes  cast  ashore  at  Pensacola. 

Soon  afterward,  when  we  were  taking  in  wood  at  a  landing, 
I  entered  another  of  these  flat  boats,  just  arrived  there,  and  dis 
covered  that  it  was  a  shop,  containing  all  kinds  of  grocery  and 
other  provisions,  tea,  sugar,  lard,  cheese,  flour,  beef,  and  whiskey. 
It  was  furnished  with  a  chimney,  and  I  was  surprised  to  see  a 
large  family  of  inmates  in  two  spacious  cabins,  for  no  one  would 
suspect  these  boats  to  be  so  roomy  below  water,  as  they  are 
usually  sunk  deep  in  the  river  by  a  heavy  freight.  They  had  a 
fiddle  on  board,  and  were  preparing  to  get  up  a  dance  for  the 
negroes.  A  fellow-traveler  told  me  that  these  peddlers  are  com 
monly  called  chicken-thieves,  and,  the  day  after  they  move  off", 
the  planters  not  unfrequently  miss  many  of  their  fowls. 

Pointing  to  an  old  levee  with  a  higher  embankment  newly 
made  behind  it,  the  captain  told  me,  that  a  breach  had  been 
made  there  in  1844,  through  which  the  Mississippi  burst,  inun 
dating  the  low  cultivated  lands  between  the  highest  part  of  the 
bank  and  the  swamp.  In  this  manner,  thousands  of  valuable 
acres  were  injured.  He  had  seen  the  water  rush  through  the 
opening  at  the  rate  of  ten  miles  an  hour,  sucking  in  several  flat 
boats,  and  carrying  them  over  a  watery  waste  into  a  dense  swamp 
forest.  Here  the  voyagers  might  remain  entangled  among  the 
trees  unheard  of  and  unheeded  till  they  were  starved,  if  canoes 
were  not  sent  to  traverse  the  swamps  in  every  direction,  in  the 
hope  of  rescuing  such  wanderers  from  destruction.  When  we 
consider  how  many  hair- breadth  escapes  these  flat  boats  have 
experienced, — how  often  they  have  been  nearly  run  down  in  the 
night,  or  even  in  the  day,  during  dense  fogs,  and  sent  to  the  bot 
tom  by  collision  with  a  huge  steamer,  it  is  strange  to  reflect, 
that  at  length,  when  their  owners  have  caught  sight  of  the 


132  CREVASSES  AND  INUNDATIONS.        [CHAP.  XXX. 

towers  of  New  Orleans  in  the  distance,  they  should  be  hurried 
into  a  wilderness,  and  perish  there. 

I  was  shown  the  entrance  of  what  is  called  the  Carthage 
crevasse,  formed  in  May,  1840,  and  open  for  eight  weeks,  during 
which  time  it  attained  a  breadth  of  eighty  feet.  Its  waters 
were  discharged  into  Lake  Pontchartrain,  when  nothing  was 
visible  between  that  great  lagoon  and  the  Mississippi  but  the 
tops  of  tall  cypress  trees  growing  in  the  morass,  and  a  long,  nar- 
narrow,  black  stripe  of  earth,  being  the  top  of  the  levee,  which 
marked  the  course  of  the  river. 

The  reader  may  naturally  ask  why  the  Mississippi,  when  it 
has  once  burst  through  its  bank,  and  taken  this  shorter  cut  to  the 
sea,  does  not  continue  in  the  same  course,  reaching  the  salt  water 
in  a  few  miles  instead  of  flowing  two  hundred  miles  before  it 
empties  itself  into  the  Gulf.  I  may  remark  in  reply,  that  the  great 
river  does  not  run,  as  might  be  inferred  from  the  description  of 
some  of  the  old  geographers,  on  the  top  of  a  ridge  in  a  level  plain, 
but  in  a  valley  from  one  hundred  to  two  hundred  and  fifty  feet 
deep. 

Fig.  9- 


^J?^_jg>jjj._» 


c 
Section  of  Channel,  Bank,  Levees  (a  and  b),  and  Swamps  of  Mississippi  River. 

Thus  a  b  c  may  represent  the  cavity  in  which  the  river  flows, 
the  artificial  levees  at  the  top  of  the  banks  being  seen  at  a  and  b. 
The  banks  are  higher  than  the  bottom  of  the  swamps,  f  g  and 
d  e  ;  because,  when  the  river  overflows,  the  coarser  part  of  the 
sediment  is  deposited  at  a  and  b,  where  the  speed  of  the  current 
is  first  checked.  It  usually  runs  there  with  a  gentle  current 
among  herbage,  reeds,  and  shrubs  ;  and  is  nearly  filtered  of  its 
earthy  ingredients  before  it  arrives  at  the  swamps.  It  is  probable 
that  the  Mississippi  flows  to  the  nearest  point  of  the  Gulf,  where 
there  is  a  sufficient  depth  or  capacity  in  the  bed  of  the  sea  to 


CHAP.  XXX.]  SNAG-BOATS.  133 

receive  its  vast  burden  of  water  and  mud ;  and  if  it  went  to  Lake 
Pontchartrain,  it  would  have  to  excavate  a  new  valley  like  a  b  c, 
many  times  deeper  than  the  bottom  of  that  lagoon. 

The  levee  raised  to  protect  the  low  grounds  from  inundation, 
was  at  first,  when  we  left  New  Orleans,  only  four  feet  high,  so 
as  not  to  impede  our  view  of  the  country  from  the  deck  ;  but  as 
we  ascended,  both  the  natural  bank  and  the  levee  became  higher 
and  higher,  and  by  the  time  we  had  sailed  up  sixty-five  miles,  I 
could  only  just  see  the  tops  of  tall  trees  in  the  swamps.  Even 
these  were  only  discernible  from  the  roof  of  the  cabin,  or  what  is 
called  the  hurricane  deck,  when  we  had  gone  100  miles  from  New 
Orleans. 

The  large  waves  raised  by  the  rapid  movement  of  several  hun 
dred  steamers,  causes  the  undermining  and  waste  of  the  banks 
to  proceed  at  a  more  rapid  rate  than  formerly.  The  roots  also 
of  trees  growing  at  the  edge  of  the  stream,  were  very  effective 
formerly  in  holding  the  soil  together,  before  so  much  timber  had 
been  cleared  away.  Now  the  banks  offer  less  resistance  to  the 
wasting  action  of  the  stream. 

The  quantity  of  drift  wood  floated  down  the  current  has  not 
diminished  sensibly  within  the  last  twenty  years,  but  nearly  all 
of  it  is  now  intercepted  in  the  last  forty  miles  above  New  Orleans, 
and  split  up  into  logs  by  the  proprietors  to  supply  the  furnaces  of 
steamboats,  which  are  thus  freeing  the  river  of  the  heavy  masses 
against  which  they  used  formerly  to  bump  in  the  night,  or  round 
which  they  were  forced  to  steer  in  the  day.  There  has  also  been 
a  marked  decrease,  of  late  years,  in  the  number  of  snags.  The 
trunks  of  uprooted  trees,  so  called,  get  fixed  in  the  mud,  having 
sunk  with  their  heavier  end  to  the  bottom,  and  remain  slanting 
down  the  stream,  so  as  to  pierce  through  the  bows  of  vessels  sail 
ing  up.  A  government  report  just  published,  shows  that  two 
snag-boats,  each  having  a  crew  of  twenty  men,  one  of  them  draw 
ing  four  feet,  and  the  other  two  feet  water,  have, extracted  700 
snags  in  four  weeks  out  of  the  Missouri,  and  others  have  been  at 
work  on  the  Mississippi.  When  it  is  remembered  that  some  of 
the  most  dangerous  of  these  snags  have  been  known  to  continue 
planted  for  twenty  years  in  the  same  spot  (so  slowly  does  wood 


134  STEAMBOAT  ACCIDENTS.  [CHAP.  XXX. 

decay  under  water),  it  may  readily  be  conceived  how  much  this 
formidable  source  of  danger  has  lessened  in  the  last  few  years. 
At  the  season  when  the  river  is  lowest,  grappling  irons  are  firm 
ly  fixed  to  these  snags,  and  the  whole  force  of  the  engines  in  the 
snag-boat  is  exerted  to  draw  them  out  of  the  mud ;  they  are  then 
cut  into  several  pieces,  and  left  to  float  down  the  stream,  but 
part  of  them  being  water-logged,  sink  at  once  to  the  bottom. 

Several  travelers  assure  me,  that  serious  accidents  are  not  more 
common  now  on  the  Mississippi  and  its  tributaries,  when  there  are 
800  steamers  afloat,  than  twenty  years  ago,  when  the  number 
of  steamers  was  less  than  fifty.  The  increased  security  arises, 
chiefly,  from  the  greater  skill  and  sobriety  of  the  captains  and 
engineers,  who  rarely  run  races  as  formerly,  and  who  usually  cast 
anchor  during  fogs  and  in  dark  nights.  Such  precautions  have 
no  doubt,  become  more  and  more  imperative,  in  proportion  as  the 
steamers  have  multiplied.  On  the  wide  Atlantic,  the  chances  of 
collision  in  a  fog  may  be  slight,  but  to  sail  in  so  narrow  a  channel 
as  that  of  a  river,  at  the  rate  of  ten  miles  an  hour,  unable  to  see 
a  ship's  length  ahead,  with  the  risk  of  meeting,  every  moment, 
other  steamers  coming  down  at  the  rate  of  fifteen  miles  an  hour, 
implies  such  recklessness,  that  one  can  not  wonder  that  navigators 
on  the  western  waters  have  earned  the  character  of  setting  small 
value  on  their  own  and  others'  lives.  Formerly,  the  most  fre 
quent  cause  of  explosions  was  a  deficiency  of  water  in  the  boiler  ; 
one  of  the  great  improvements  adopted,  within  the  last  five  years, 
for  preventing  this  mischief,  is  the  addition  of  a  separate  steam- 
apparatus  for  pumping  up  water,  and  securing  a  regular  supply 
by  machinery,  instead  of  trusting  to  the  constant  watchfulness  of 
the  engineers.  On  the  whole,  it  seems  to  be  more  dangerous  to, 
travel  by  land,  in  a  new  country,  than  by  river  steamers,  and 
some  who  have  survived  repeated  journeyings  in  stage-coaches, 
show  us  many  scars.  The  judge  who  escorted  my  wife  to 
Natchez,  informed  her  that  he  had  been  upset  no  less  than  thir 
teen  times. 

On  the  left  bank,  about  sixty  miles  above  New  Orleans,  stands 
Jefferson  College  ;  a  schoolmaster  from  the  north,  speaking  to  me 
of  its  history,  imputed  its  want  of  success  to  the  insubordination 


CHAP.  XXX.]  THUNDER-SHOWER.  135 

of  the  youths,  the  inability  of  southern  planters  to  govern  their 
children  themselves,  and  their  unwillingness  to  delegate  the 
necessary  authority  to  the  masters  of  universities  or  schools. 
"  But  they  are  growing  wiser,"  he  said,  "  and  vigorous  efforts 
are  making  to  improve  the  discipline  in  the  university  of  Char- 
lottesville,  in  Virginia,  which  has  hitherto  been  too  lax. 

We  soon  afterward  passed  a  convent  on  the  same  bank,  and  I 
heard  praise  bestowed  on  the  "  Sisters  of  Charity,"  for  their 
management  of  a  hospital. 

At  St.  Thomas's  Point,  about  twenty-five  miles  above  New 
Orleans,  we  passed  a  fine  plantation,  which  formerly  belonged  to 
Mr.  Preston,  of  South  Carolina,  a  distinguished  member  of  Con 
gress,  whose  acquantaince  I  made  in  1842.  There  are,  I  am 
told,  nearly  1000  negroes  here,  and  I  am  astonished  at  the  large 
proportion  of  the  colored  race  settled  every  where  on  the  land 
bordering  the  river.  The  relative  value  of  colored  and  white 
labor  was  here,  as  elsewhere,  a  favorite  theme  of  conversation, 
when  there  happened  to  be  passengers  on  board  from  the  northern 
states.  The  task  of  three  negroes,  they  say,  in  Louisiana,  is  to 
cut  and  bind  up  two  cords  of  wood  in  a  day,  whereas,  a  single 
white  man,  in  the  State  of  New  York,  prepares  three  cords  daily. 
In  packing  cotton,  the  negroes  are  expected  to  perform  a  third 
less  work  than  a  white  laborer. 

In  the  afternoon  we  were  overtaken  by  a  heavy  thunder-shower, 
the  water  pouring  off  the  eaves  of  our  cabin  roof,  in  copious  streams, 
into  the  river,  through  numerous  spouts  or  tin  pipes.  When  the 
rain  abated,  I  saw  a  fog  slowly  stealing  over  parts  of  the  stream, 
for  the  water  was  much  colder  than  the  air.  For  some  hours  we 
were  unable  to  proceed,  and  the  captain  informed  me,  that  wre 
should  remain  prisoners  until  the  temperature  of  the  Mississippi 
and  that  of  the  atmosphere  were  more  nearly  equalized.  This, 
he  hoped,  would  happen  in  one  of  two  ways,  either  by  a  renewal 
of  rain,  which  would  warm  the  river,  or  by  the  wind  veering 
round  from  south  to  west,  which  wrould  cool  the  air.  The  latter 
change  soon  occurred,  and  we  were  instantly  released. 

I  was  congratulated  by  some  northerners  at  having  escaped 
the  musquitocs.  The  captain  said,  "that  they  who  are  acclirnat- 


136  MUSQUITOES.— BAYOUS.  [CHAP.  XXX. 

ized,  suffer  no  longer  from  the  bites,  or  scarcely  at  all,  and  even 
the  young  children  of  Creoles  are  proof  against  them,  although 
the  face  and  neck  of  a  new  settler,  whether  young  or  old,  swell 
up  frightfully.  Yet  the  wild  cattle  and  deer  have  not  acquired  any 
hereditary  immunity  from  this  torment,  and,  to  escape  it,  are  seen 
standing  in  the  lakes  with  their  heads  only  above  the  water." 
Some  passengers  assured  me,  "  that  when  people  have  recovered 
from  the  yellow  fever,  the  skin,  although  in  other  respects  as 
sensitive  as  ever,  is  no  longer  affected  by  a  musquito  bite,  or,  if 
at  all,  in  a  very  slight  degree;"  and  they  added,  "that  last  year, 
1845,  both  the  yellow  fever  and  the  musquitoes  were  in  abeyance, 
although  the  heat  of  the  season  was  intense." 

After  we  had  sailed  up  the  river  eighty  miles,  I  was  amused 
by  the  sight  of  the  insignificant  village  of  Donaldsonville,  the 
future  glories  of  which  I  had  heard  so  eloquently  depicted.^  Its 
position,  however,  is  doubtless  important ;  for  here  the  right  bank 
is  intersected  by  that  arm  of  the  Mississippi,  called  Bayou  La 
Fourche.  This  arm  has  much  the  appearance  of  a  canal,  and 
by  it,  I  am  told,  our  steamer,  although  it  draws  no  less  than  ten 
feet  water,  might  sail  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  or  traverse  a  large 
part  of  that  wonderful  inland  navigation  in  the  delta  which  con 
tributes  so  largely  to  the  wealth  of  Louisiana.  A  curious 
description  was  given  me,  by  one  of  my  fellow  travelers,  of  that 
same  low  country,  especially  the  region  called  Attakapas.  It 
contains,  he  said,  wide  "  quaking  prairies,"  where  cattle  are 
pastured,  and  where  you  may  fancy  yourself  far  inland.  Yet, 
if  you  pierce  any  where  through  the  turf  to  the  depth  of  two 
feet,  you  find  sea-fish  swimming  about,  which  make  their  way  in 
search  of  food  under  the  superficial  sward,  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico, 
through  subterranean  watery  channels. 

Notwithstanding  the  quantity  of  sediment  in  the  Mississippi, 
they  tell  me  that  its  waters  are  inhabited  by  abundance  of  shad 
and  herring,  and  in  several  places,  when  I  asked  the  fishermen 
what  they  were  catching,  they  answered,  "  Sardines." 

In  the  course  of  the  first  day  we  saw  the  Bayou  Plaquemine 
on  the  right,  and  the  Iberville  River  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Mis- 
*  Ante,  p.  99. 


CHAP.  XXX.]          BURIED  TREES,  PORT  HUDSON.  137 

sissippi,  the  two  arms  next  above  that  of  La  Fourche.  One  of 
those  natural  rafts  of  floating  trees  which  occasionally  bridge  over 
the  western  rivers  for  many  years  in  succession,  becoming  covered 
over  with  soil,  shrubs,  and  trees,  blocked  up  till  lately  the  Bayou 
Plaquemine.  The  obstacle  was  at  length  removed  at  the  expense 
of  the  state,  and  the  rush  of  water  through  the  newly  cleared 
channel  was  so  tremendous,  that  several  engineers  entertained 
apprehensions,  lest  the  whole  of  the  Mississippi  should  take  its 
course  by  this  channel  to  the  sea,  deserting  New  Orleans.  Mr. 
Forshey  assured  me  there  was  no  real  ground  for  such  fears, 
because  the  Mississippi,  as  before  hinted,^  takes  at  present  the 
shortest  cut  to  that  part  of  the  Gulf  where  it  can  find  a  basin 
deep  and  capacious  enough  to  receive  it. 

During  the  night  we  passed  Baton  Rouge,  the  first  point  above 
New  Orleans  where  any  land  higher  and  older  than  the  alluvial 
plain  comes  up  to  the  bank  to  constitute  what  is  termed  a  bluff. 
The  cliff  there  is  only  a  few  feet  high.  The  next  bluff  is  at  Port 
Hudson,  2  5  miles  higher  up  the  river,  and  165  miles  above  New 
Orleans.  I  had  been  urged  by  Dr.  Carpenter  to  examine  the 
geology  of  this  bluff,  which  I  had  also  wished  to  do,  because 
Bartram,  in  his  travels,  in  1777,  discovered  there  the  existence 
of  a  fossil  forest  at  the  base  of  the  tall  cliff,  and  had  commented 
with  his  usual  sagacity  on  the  magnitude  of  the  geographical 
changes  implied  by  its  structure.  The  following  are  his  words, 
which  deserve  the  more  attention,  because  the  particular  portion 
of  the  cliff  described  by  him,  has  long  ago  been  undermined  and 
swept  away  by  the  Mississippi.  "  Next  morning,"  says  Bartram, 
"  we  set  off  again  on  our  return  home,  and  called  by  the  way  at 
the  cliffs,  which  is  a  perpendicular  bank  or  bluff,  rising  up  out 
of  the  river  near  one  hundred  feet  above  the  present  surface  of  the 
water,  whose  active  current  sweeps  along  by  it.  From  eight  or 
nine  feet  below  the  loamy  vegetative  mold  at  top,  to  within  four 
or  five  feet  of  the  water,  these  cliffs  present  to  view  strata  of  clay, 
marl,  and  chalk  of  all  colors,  as  brown,  red,  yellow,  white,  blue, 
and  purple  ;  there  are  separate  strata  of  these  various  colors,  as 
well  as  mixed  or  parti-colored :  the  lowest  stratum  next  the  water 
*  Ante,  p.  132. 


138  BURIED  TREES.  [CHAP.  XXX. 

is  exactly  of  the  same  black  mud,  or  rich  soil,  as  the  adjacent 
low  cypress  swamps  above  and  below  the  bluff;  and  here,  in  the 
cliffs,  we  see  vast  stumps  of  cypress  and  other  trees  which,  at  this 
day,  grow  in  these  low,  wet  swamps,  and  which  range  on  a  level 
with  them.  These  stumps  are  sound,  stand  upright,  and  seem 
to  be  rotted  off  about  two  or  three  feet  above  the  spread  of  their 
roots  ;  their  trunks,  limbs,  &c.,  lie  in  all  directions  about  them. 
But  when  these  swampy  forests  were  growing,  and  by  what  cause 
they  were  cut  off  and  overwhelmed  by  the  various  strata  of  earth, 
which  now  rise  near  one  hundred  feet  above,  at  the  brink  of  the 
cliffs,  and  two  or  three  times  that  height,  but  a  few  hundred  yards 
back,  are  inquiries  perhaps  not  easily  answered.  The  swelling 
heights,  rising  gradually  over  and  beyond  this  precipice,  are  now 
adorned  with  high  forests  of  stately  Magnolia,  Liquidambar, 
Fagus,  Quercus,  Lauras,  Morus,  Juglans,  Tilia,  Halesia, 
JEsculus,  Callicarpa,  Liriodendron"  fyc.* 

Dr.  Carpenter,  in  1838,  or  sixty-one  years  after  Bartram, 
made  a  careful  investigation  of  this  same  bluf£  having  ascertained 
that  in  the  interval  the  river  had  been  continually  wrearing  it 
away  at  such  a  rate  as  to  expose  to  view  a  section  several  hun 
dred  feet  to  the  eastward  of  that  seen  by  his  predecessor.  I  shall 
first  give  a  brief  abstract  of  Dr.  Carpenter's  observations,  published 
in  Sillirnan's  Journal.! 

"  About  the  level  of  low  water,  at  the  bottom  of  the  bluff,  a 
bed  of  vegetable  matter  is  exposed,  consisting  of  sticks,  leaves,  and 
fruits,  arranged  in  thin  horizontal  laminae,  with  very  thin  layers 
of  clay  interposed.  Among  the  fruits  were  observed  the  nuts  of 
the  swamp  hickory  (Juglam  aquoMca)  very  abundant,  the  burr- 
like  pericarp  of  the  sweet  gurn  (Liquidambar  styraciflua),  and 
walnuts,  the  fruit  of  Juglans  nigra.  The  logs  lying  horizontally 
are  those  of  cypress  (Cupressus  thyoides),  swamp  hickory,  a 
species  of  cotton  wood  (Populus),  and  other  trees  peculiar  to  the 
low  swamps  of  Louisiana.  Besides  these  there  were  a  great 
number  of  erect  stumps  of  the  large  deciduous  cypress  (  Taxodium 
disticlium}  sending  their  roots  deep  into  the  clay  beneath.  This 

*  Bartram,  "  Travels  in  North  America,"  p.  433. 
t  Vol.  xxxvi.  p.  118. 


CHAP.  XXX.]  BLUFFS  OF  PORT  HUDSON.  139 


buried  forest  is  covered  by  a  bed  of  clay,  twelve  feet  thick,  and 
is  followed  by  another  superimposed  bed  of  vegetable  matter,  four 
feet  thick,  containing  logs  arid  branches,  half  turned  into  lignite, 
and  erect  stumps,  among  which  there  are  none  of  the  large  cy 
presses,  as  in  the  lower  bed.  Among  the  logs,  the  water-oak 
(Quercus  aquatica)  was  recognizable,  and  a  pine  with  a  great 
deal  of  bark,  and  the  strobiles  of  the  Pinus  tceda. 

"  This  upper  forest  points  to  the  former  existence,  on  the  spot, 
of  one  of  those  swamps,  occurring  at  higher  levels,  in  which  the 
Ciqiressus  disticha  ( Taxodium)  does  not  grow.  Above  the 
upper  layer  of  erect  stumps  are  various  beds  of  clay,  in  all  more 
than  fifty  feet  thick,  with  two  thin  layers  of  vegetable  matter 
intercalated  ;  and  above  the  whole  more  than  twenty  feet  of  sand, 
the  lower  part  of  which  included  siliceous  pebbles  derived  from 
some  ancient  rocks,  and  containing  the  marks  of  encrinites  and 
corals  (Favosites),"  &c. 

Dr.  Carpenter,  when  he  published  this  account  in  1838, 
thought  he  had  detected  the  distinct  marks  of  the  ax*  on  some 
of  the  logs  accompanying  the  buried  stumps  ;  but  he  informed 
me,  in  1846,  that  he  was  mistaken,  and  that  the  apparent 
notches  were  caused  by  the  gaping  open  of  the  bituminized  wood, 
probably  after  shrinking  and  drying,  of  the  truth  of  which  I  was 
myself  convinced,  after  seeing  the  specimens.  That  the  lowest 
bed  had  originally  been  a  real  cypress  swamp,  was  proved  beyond 
all  doubt  by  the  stumps  being  surrounded  by  those  peculiar  knobs 
or  excrescences  called  cypress  knees,  which  this  tree  throws  out 
from  its  base,  when  it  grows  in  a  submerged  soil.  These  knees 
sometimes  rise  up  through  the  water  from  a  depth  of  six  or  eight 
feet,  and  are  supposed  to  supply  the  roots  with  air,  as  they  are 
never  formed  when  the  cypress  grows  on  dry  ground. 

At  the  time  of  my  visit,  the  river  was  unfortunately  too  high 
to  enable  me  to  see  the  lowest  deposit  containing  the  memorials 
of  this  ancient  forest,  the  geological  interest  of  which  is  much 
enhanced  by  its  having  been  seen  by  Bartram,  and  again  by 
Carpenter,  extending  horizontally  over  a  considerable  area.  I 
learnt  from  several  residents  at  Port  Hudson,  and  from  Captain 
*  Silliman.  ibid.  p.  119, 


140  BURIED  TREES.  [CHAP.  XXX 


Sellick.  who  commanded  the  Rainbow,  that,  last  season,  when, 
the  water  was  low,  the  stumps  of  the  buried  trees  were  as  con 
spicuous  as  ever  at  the  base  of  the  cliff,  which  has  been  much 
undermined  by  the  river  since  the  year  1838,  when  Dr.  Carpenter 
explored  it.  The  fossil  forest  was  12  feet  under  water  when  I 
landed,  but  at  higher  levels  I  saw  the  trunks  of  two  trees  buried 
in  a  vertical  position  at  different  levels,  each  of  them  about  2£ 
feet  high.  I  estimated  the  height  of  the  entire  cliff  to  be  about 
75  feet,  consisting  in  part  of  stiff  unctuous  clay,  and  partly  of 
loam,  but  with  no  chalk,  as  stated  by  Bartram.  A  small 
streamlet,  artificially  led  to  the  top  of  the  bluff,  had,  within  the 
last  four  years,  cut  out  a  ravine  no  less  than  sixty  feet  deep 
through  the  upper  loamy  beds.  In  the  sections  thus  laid  open, 
I  saw  precisely  such  deposits  as  a  river  would  form  in  its  bed,  or 
in  the  swamps  which  it  had  occasionally  flooded.  Near  the 
bottom  was  a  layer  of  leaves,  resembling  those  of  the  bay,  with 
numerous  roots  of  trees  and  wood  in  a  fresher  state  than  I  ever 
saw  them  in  any  tertiary  formation.  Taking  a  canoe,  I  after 
ward  proceeded  to  examine  that  part  of  the  cliff  which  extends 
about  a  mile  down  the  river's  left  bank,  immediately  below  Port 
Hudson,  where  it  is  between  seventy  and  eighty  feet  high.  The 
deposits  laid  open  to  view  were  divisible  into  three  groups,  the 
topmost  consisting  of  brown  clay,  the  middle  of  whitish  siliceous 
sand,  and  the  lower  of  green  clay.  I  found  some  men  digging 
the  middle  or  sandy  stratum  for  making  bricks,  and  they  had  just 
come  upon  a  prostrate  buried  tree,  black  and  carbonized,  but  not 
turned  into  lignite.  I  counted  in  it  220  rings  of  annual  growth. 
Near  it  I  found  two  other  smaller  fossil  trunks,  all  lying  as  if 
they  had  been  drift  wood  carried  down  by  a  river  and  buried  in 
sand.  One  of  the  men  pointed  out  to  me  that  the  structure  of 
the  wood  showed  distinctly  that  they  belonged  to  three  different 
species,  one  being  oak,  another  hickory,  and  the  third  sassafras. 
Their  texture  seemed  certainly  that  of  distinct  genera  of  trees, 
but  for  the  accuracy  of  my  informant's  determination  I  can  not 
vouch.  At  this  point  they  told  me  the  bluff  has,  in  the  course 
of  the  last  eight  years,  lost  ground  no  less  than  200  feet  by  the 
encroachment  of  the  river. 


CHAP.  XXX.]  LANDSLIP.  141 

To  prove  that  the  present  site  of  the  buried  forest  before 
alluded  to,  must  be  far  from  the  point  where  Bartram  or  even 
Carpenter  saw  it,  an  account  was  given  me  by  the  residents  here, 
of  several  recent  landslips  near  Port  Hudson  ;  one  in  particular, 
a  few  years  ago,  when  by  the  caving  in  of  the  bank,  three  acres 
of  ground,  fifty  or  sixty  feet  high,  composed  of  clay  and  sand,  and 
covered  by  a  forest,  sank  down  bodily  in  the  river,  and  were  then 
gradually  washed  away.  One  of  the  eye-witnesses  related  to  me 
that  the  trees  were  at  first  seen  to  tremble,  then  large  rents  began 
to  open  in  the  soil  deeper  and  deeper,  after  which  the  movement 
was  such  that  the  boughs  of  the  trees  lashed  each  other,  and  acorns 
and  beech  nuts  were  showered  down  like  hail.  A  herd  of  pigs 
was  so  intent  in  devouring  these,  that  they  allowed  themselves 
to  be  carried  down  vertically  fifty  feet,  the  subsidence  occupying 
about  five  minutes.  The  outer  edge  of  the  bluff,  with  some  of 
the  swine,  fell  into  the  river,  but  these  swam  to  the  sunk  part 
of  the  bluff,  and  joined  their  companions.  The  owners  watched 
them  anxiously  till  dusk,  unable  to  go  to  their  rescue  ;  but  at 
length,  to  their  surprise,  they  saw  a  leader,  followed  by  all  the 
rest,  wind  his  way  along  narrow  ledges  on  the  face  of  the  precipice, 
from  which  the  fallen  mass  had  been  detached,  and  climb  up  to 
the  top.  Next  morning,  to  their  no  less  astonishment,  they  found 
the  herd  feeding  again  on  the  same  perilous  ground,  and  saw  them 
again  return  by  the  same  path  at  night. 

I  have  dwelt  at  some  length  on  the  geological  phenomena 
disclosed  in  the  interesting  sections  of  these  bluffs,  because  I  agree 
with  Bartram  and  Carpenter,  that  they  display  a  series  of  deposits 
similar  to  the  modern  formations  of  the  alluvial  plain  and  delta 
of  the  Mississippi.  They  lead  us,  therefore,  to  the  important 
conclusion,  that  there  have  been  changes  in  the  relative  level  of 
land  and  sea  since  the  establishment,  in  this  part  of  the  continent, 
of  a  geographical  state  of  things  approximating  to  that  now  pre 
vailing.  Then,  as  now,  there  were  swamps  in  which  the  decid 
uous  cypress  and  other  trees  grew,  and  became  buried  in  mud, 
without  any  intermixture  of  sand  or  pebbles.  At  that  remote 
period,  also,  drift  wood  was  brought  down  from  the  upper  country, 
and  inclosed  in  sandy  strata.  Although  I  could  not  ascertain 


142  ANCIENT  SUBSIDENCE  OF  DELTA.       [CHAP.  XXX. 

the  exact  height  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  of  the  fossil  cypress 
swamp  at  Port  Hudson,  I  presume  it  is  less  than  thirty  feet ;  and 
in  order  to  explain  the  superposition  of  150  feet  of  fresh-water 
sediment,  we  must  imagine  the  gradual  subsidence  of  fluviatile 
strata  to  a  depth  far  below  the  level  of  the  sea,  followed  by  an 
upward  movement  to  as  great  an  amount.  The  depression  must 
have  taken  place  so  slowly  as  to  allow  the  river  to  raise  the 
surface  by  sedimentary  deposition  continually,  and  never  permit 
the  sea  to  encroach  and  cover  the  area.  Jt  is  quite  conceivable, 
for  example,  that  the  present  delta  and  alluvial  plain  should  sink 
150  feet  without  the  salt  water  coming  up  even  to  New  Orleans, 
provided  the  land  went  down  only  a  few  feet  or  inches  in  a  cen 
tury,  and  provided  the  ground  was  raised  vertically  to  the  same 
amount  by  fluviatiie  mud,  sand,  or  vegetable  matter.  But  if  the 
land  should  go  down  even  ten  or  twelve  feet  at  once,  the  whole 
delta  would  be  submerged  beneath  the  sea.  Were  the  downward 
movement  here  supposed  to  be  followed  by  an  upheaval  to  the 
extent  of  about  150  feet,  and  should  the  river  then  cut  a  channel 
through  the  upraised  mass,  we  might  expect  to  see  the  modern 
formation  exhibit  appearances  similar  to  those  of  high  antiquity 
above  described  at  Port  Hudson. 

I  shall  endeavor,  in  the  sequel,  to  show  that  oscillations  of 
level,  like  those  here  assumed  to  account  for  the  phenomena  at 
Port  Hudson,  will  explain  other  appearances,  observable,  not 
only  in  cliffs  bounding  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  but  in  ancient 
alluvial  terraces  bordering  the  Ohio,  and  other  tributaries  of  the 
great  river. 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

Fontania  near  Port  Hudson. — Lake  Solitude. — Floating  Island. — Bony  Pike, 
— Story  of  the  Devil's  Swamp. — Embarking  by  Night  in  Steamboat. — 
Literary  Clerk. — Old  Levees  undermined. — Succession  of  upright  buried 
Trees  in  Bank. — Raccourci  Cut-off. — Bar  at  Mouth  of  Red  River. — Shelly 
Fresh-water  Loam  of  Natchez. — Recent  Ravines  in  Table-Land. — Bones 
of  extinct  Quadrupeds. — Human  Fossil  Bone. — Question  of  supposed  co 
existence  of  Man  with  extinct  Mammalia  discussed. — Tornado  at  Natchez. 
— Society,  Country-Houses,  and  Gardens. — Landslips. — Indian  Antiqui 
ties. 

AFTER  I  had  examined  the  bluff  below  Port  Hudson,  I  went 
down  the  river  in  my  boat  to  Fontania,  a  few  miles  to  the  south, 
to  pay  a  visit  to  Mr.  Faulkner,  a  proprietor  to  whom  Dr.  Car 
penter  had  given  me  a  letter  of  introduction.  He  received  me 
with  great  politeness,  and,  at  my  request,  accompanied  me  at 
once  to  see  a  crescent-shaped  sheet  of  water  on  his  estate,  called 
Lake  Solitude,  evidently  an  ancient  bed  of  the  Mississippi,  now 
deserted.  It  is  one  of  the  few  examples  of  old  channels  which 
occur  to  the  east  of  the  great  river,  the  general  tendency  of  which 
is  always  to  move  from  west  to  east.  Of  this  eastward  movement 
there  is  a  striking  monument  on  the  other  side  of  the  Mississippi 
immediately  opposite  Port  Hudson,  called  Fausse  Riviere,  a  sheet 
of  water  of  the  usual  horse-shoe  form.  One  of  my  fellow  pas 
sengers  in  the  Rainbow  had  urged  me  to  visit  Lake  Solitude, 
"  because,"  said  he,  "  there  is  a  floating  island  in  it,  well  wooded, 
on  which  a  friend  of  mine  once  landed  from  a  canoe,  when,  to  his 
surprise,  it  began  to  sink  with  his  weight.  In  great  alarm  he 
climbed  a  cypress  tree,  which  also  began  immediately  to  go  down 
with  him  as  fast  as  he  ascended.  He  mounted  higher  and  higher 
into  its  boughs,  until  at  length  it  ceased  to  subside,  and,  looking 
round,  he  saw  in  every  direction,  for  a  distance  of  fifty  yards,  the 
whole  wood  in  motion."  I  wished  much  to  know  what  founda 
tion  there  could  be  for  so  marvelous  a  tale.  It  appears  that 


144  BONY  PIKE.  [CHAP.  XXXI. 

there  is  always  a  bayou  or  channel,  connecting,  during  floods, 
each  deserted  bend  or  lake  with  the  main  river,  through  which 
large  floating  logs  may  pass.  These  often  form  rafts,  and  become 
covered  with  soil  supporting  shrubs  and  trees.  At  first  such 
green  islands  are  blown  from  one  part  of  the  lake  to  another  by 
the  winds,  but  the  deciduous  cypress,  if  it  springs  up  in  such  a 
soil,  sends  down  strong  roots,  many  feet  or  yards  long,  so  as  to 
cast  anchor  in  the  muddy  bottom,  rendering  the  island  stationary. 
Lake  Solitude,  situated  in  lat.  31°  N.  is  two  miles  and  a  half 
in  circuit,  and  is  most  appropriately  named,  being  a  retired  sheet 
of  water,  its  borders  overhung  by  the  swamp  willow,  now  just 
coming  into  leaf,  and  skirted  by  the  tall  cypress,  from  which  long 
streamers  of  Spanish  moss  are  hanging.  On  the  east  it  is  bounded 
by  high  ground,  a  prolongation  of  the  bluff  at  Port  Hudson,  on 
which  the  hickory,  the  oak,  and  many  splendid  magnolias,  with 
the  beech,  walnut,  tulip  tree,  and  holly,  and  a  variety  of  beautiful 
shrubs  are  seen.  The  surface  of  the  lake  (except  near  the  shore, 
where  it  is  covered  with  the  water  lily)  faithfully  reflects  the  trees 
and  sky,  presenting,  in  this  respect,  a  marked  contrast  to  the 
yellow  waters  of  the  Mississippi.  It  is  inhabited  by  hundreds 
of  alligators  and  countless  fish,  and  so  many  birds  were  swimming 
on  it,  or  flying  over  it,  that  it  seemed  as  if  all  the  wild  creatures 
which  the  steamers  had  scared  away  from  the  main  river  had 
taken  refuge  here.  Several  alligators  were  lying  motionless,  with 
their  noses  just  above  the  surface  of  the  water,  resembling  black 
logs.  About  fourteen  years  ago,  some  of  them  were  not  unfre- 
quently  seen  here  measuring  fifteen  feet  in  length,  but  they  now 
rarely  exceed  eight  feet.  I  observed  a  large  gar-fish,  or  bony 
pike,  called  the  alligator  gar  (Lepidosteus),  leap  nearly  out  of  the 
water  in  pursuit  of  its  prey.  Its  hard  shining  scales  are  so  strong 
and  difficult  to  pierce,  that  it  can  scarcely  be  shot.  It  can  live 
longer  out  of  water  than  any  other  fish  of  this  country,  having  a 
large  cellular  swimming  bladder,  which  is  said  almost  to  serve 
the  purpose  of  a  real  lung.  One  of  them  has  been  known  to  seize 
the  nostrils  of  a  mule  who  was  drinking,  and  only  to  be  shaken 
off  on  dry  ground,  when  its  whole  body  had  been  dragged  into 
the  air. 


CAP.    XXXL]  THE  DEVIL'S  SWAMP.  145 

On  the  "boughs  of  the  willows  were  perched  several  white 
cranes,  while  herons,  cormorants,  and  water-rails  were  swimming 
on  the  lake,  their  various  notes  adding  to  the  wildness  of  the  scene. 
Shriller  than  all,  as  the  evening  came  on,  we  heard  the  voice  of 
the  large  bull-frog. 

As  we  went  back  to  the  house,  over  the  high  ground,  we  saw 
three  kinds  of  squirrels  and  many  birds.  So  skillful  was  my 
companion  with  his  rifle,  that  he  brought  down  every  bird  which 
came  within  shot — owls,  rice-birds,  woodpeckers,  and  jays — that 
I  might  examine  their  plumage.  I  admired  a  beautiful  cluster 
of  the  flowers  and  fruit  of  the  red  maple,  about  twenty  feet  above 
our  heads.  He  offered  to  pick  them  for  me,  and,  without  delay, 
took  aim  so  dexterously,  as  to  sever  the  stem  from  the  bough  just 
below  the  blossom,  without  seeming  to  have  injured  the  flower  by 
a  single  shot.  In  the  course  of  our  walk,  I  observed  several 
shrubs,  almost  hidden  by  the  luxuriant  growth  of  that  most  ele 
gant  of  climbers,  the  yellow  jessamine  (Gelsemmm  nitidum), 
with  its  fragrant  blossoms. 

From  these  heights  south  of  Port  Hudson,  we  had  a  grand 
view  of  the  great  plain  of  the  Mississippi,  far  to  the  south  and 
west,  an  endless  labyrinth  of  uninhabited  swamps,  covered  with 
a  variety  of  timber,  and  threaded  with  bayous,  one  resembling 
another  so  exactly,  that  many  a  stranger,  who  has  entered  them 
in  a  canoe,  has  wandered  for  days  without  being  able  to  extricate 
himself  from  their  woody  mazes.  Among  these  morasses,  one 
called  the  Devil's  Swamp  was  in  sight,  and  I  found  a  curious 
account  of  the  origin  of  its  name  in  a  MS.  dated  1776,  of  Caleb 
Carpenter,  a  relation  of  my  New  Orleans  friend. 

A  German  emigrant  having  settled  near  the  bank  of  the  Mis 
sissippi,  in  1776,  felled,  with  great  labor,  some  lofty  cypresses; 
but,  happening  one  day  to  make  a  false  turn  in  his  canoe,  entered, 
by  mistake,  a  neighboring  bayou.  Every  feature  was  so  exactly 
like  the  scene  where  he  had  been  toiling-  for  weeks,  that  he  could 
riot  question  the  identity  of  the  spot.  He  saw  all  the  same  bends, 
both  in  the  larger  and  smaller  channels.  He  made  out  distinctly 
the  same  trees,  among  others  the  very  individual  cypresses  which 
he  had  cut  down.  There  they  stood,  erect  and  entire,  without 

VOL.   II. G 


146  EMBARKATION  BY  NIGHT.  [CHAP.  XXXI. 

retaining  one  mark  of  his  ax.  He  concluded  that  some  evil  spirit 
had,  in  a  single  night,  undone  all  the  labors  of  many  weeks  ; 
and,  seized  with  superstitious  terror,  he  fled  from  the  enchanted 
wood,  never  to  return. 

In  order  that  I  might  not  spend  an  indefinite  time  on  the 
Mississippi,  I  determined  to  be  prepared  for  a  start  in  the  first 
chance  steamer  which  might  be  bound  for  Natchez,  140  miles 
distant,  whenever  an  opportunity  should  offer,  whether  by  day  or 
night.  I  was  told  by  my  host  that  a  trusty  black  servant  had 
been  already  appointed  to  look  out  for  a  steamer,  which  was  to 
convey  some  farm  produce  to  a  proprietor  far  off  on  the  Pvecl 
River.  He  proposed,  therefore,  to  give  orders  to  this  negro  to 
wake  me  if  any  boat  bound  for  Natchez  should  appear  in  sight 
before  morning.  Accordingly,  about  an  hour  after  midnight,  I 
was  roused  from  rny  slumbers,  and  went  down  over  a  sloping  lawn 
to  the  steam-boat  landing  on  the  river's  bank.  The  sky  was  clear, 
and  it  was  bright  moonlight,  and  the  distant  cries  of  the  owls,  and 
other  night  birds  around  Lake  Solitude,  \vere  distinctly  heard, 
mingled  with  the  chirping  of  myriads  of  frogs.  On  the  low  bank 
my  watchman  had  lighted  a  signal  fire,  and  I  heard  the  puffing 
of  a  steamer  in  the  distance  ascending  the  stream.  She  soon 
neared  us,  and,  on  being  hailed,  answered,  "  La  Belle  Creole, 
bound  for  Bayou  Sara."  This  port  was  far  short  of  my  destina 
tion,  and  when  we  shouted  "  Natchez,"  the  captain  first  asked 
if  we  had  any  wood  to  sell,  and  on  learning  there  was  none, 
sailed  away.  I  returned  to  the  house,  and  took  another  nap  of 
several  hours,  when  I  received  a  second  summons  from  my  faith 
ful  sentinel.  The  scene  was  entirely  changed  ;  it  was  nearly 
day-break,  and  the  fogs  rising  from  the  marshes  had  begun  to 
cover  the  river.  I  was  in  despair,  fearing  that  our  signal  fire 
would  not  be  discerned  through  the  mist.  Soon,  however,  we 
heard  the  loud  gasping  of  the  two  steam-pipes  sounding  nearer 
and  nearer,  and  a  large  steamer  coming  suddenly  close  to  the 
landing,  was  announced  as  "  the  Talma  of  Cincinnati."  In  a 
few  minutes  I  was  crossing  the  narrow  plank  which  led  from 
the  steep  bank  to  the  vessel,  which  was  actually  in  motion  as  I 
walked  over  it,  so  that  I  was  glad  to  find  myself  safe  on  deck. 


CHAP.  XXXI.]      LITERARY  CLERK.— OLD  LEVEES.  147 

They  told  me  I  must  register  my  name  at  the  office.  The  clerk 
asked  me  if  I  was  the  author  of  a  work  on  geology,  and  being 
answered  in  the  affirmative,  wished  to  know  if  I  was  acquainted 
with  Mr.  Macaulay.  On  my  saying  yes,  he  took  out  a  late 
number  of  the  Edinburgh  Review,  and  begged  me  to  tell  him 
whether  the  article  on  Addison  was  written  by  my  friend,  for 
he  had  been  discussing  this  matter  with  a  passenger  that  evening. 
When  I  had  confirmed  this  opinion  he  thanked  me,  expressing  much 
regret  that  he  should  not  see  me  again,  since  I  was  to  land  next 
day  at  Natchez  before  he  should  be  up.  This  conversation  lasted 
but  a  few  minutes,  and  in  as  many  more  I  was  in  a  good  berth 
under  a  musquito  net,  listening  to  a  huge  bell  tolling  in  the  fog, 
to  warn  every  flat-boat  to  get  out  of  the  way,  on  peril  of  being 
sent  instantly  to  the  bottom.  In  spite  of  this  din,  and  that  of 
the  steam  funnels  arid  machinery,  I  soon  fell  asleep  for  the  third 
time. 

When  I  carne  on  deck  next  day,  all  hands  were  at  work,  taking 
in  wood  at  a  landing  below  Bayou  Sara,  where  I  saw  on  the  top 
of  the  river  bank,  now  sixteen  feet  high,  several  striking  memorials 
of  the  ravages  of  former  inundations.  Besides  the  newest  levee, 
there  was  one  which  had  given  way  previously  to  the  great  flood 
of  1814,  and  a  still  older  one,  which,  although  once  parallel,  was 
now  cut  off  abruptly,  and  at  right  angles  to  the  present  course  of  the 
river.  They  reminded  me  of  the  remnant  of  an  oval  intrench- 
ment  at  the  edge  of  the  cliff  near  New  Haven  in  Sussex,  and  of 
those  paths  leading  directly  to  the  brink  of  precipices  overhanging 
the  sea  in  many  maritime  counties  in  England.  Farther  on,  at 
another  wooding  station,  in  Adams  County,  Mississippi,  I  observed 
a  bank  eighteen  feet  in  perpendicular  height,  and  said  to  be  forty- 
five  feet  high  when  the  water  is  at  its  lowest.  It  was  composed 
of  sand,  or  sandy  loam,  indicating  a  comparatively  rapid  deposi 
tion.  In  such  loam,  no  erect  stumps  and  trunks  of  trees  are  met 
with,  the  sediment  having  accumulated  on  the  margin  of  the 
river  in  a  few  years  too  fast  to  allow  large  trees  to  grow  there. 
But  in  other  places,  where  the  bank  consisted  of  fine,  stiff  clay, 
I  saw  here  and  there  the  buried  stools  of  cypresses,  and  other 
trees,  in  an  upright  position,  with  their  roots  attached,  sometimes 


148  UPRIGHT  BURIED  TREES.  [CHAP.  XXXI. 


repeated  at  several  different  levels  iii  the  face  of  the  same  bank. 
I  first  remarked  one  of  these  at  a  point  forty-five  miles  above  New 
Orleans,  and  they  increased  in  number  as  we  ascended.  When 
first  told  of  this  phenomenon,  before  visiting  the  Mississippi,  it 
appeared  to  me  very  difficult  of  explanation.  I  soon,  however, 
discovered  that  the  great  river,  in  its  windings,  often  intersects 
the  swamps  or  cypress  basins  which  had  been  previously  filled  up 
with  fine  mud  or  vegetable  matter,  at  various  distances  from  the 
former  river-channel. 

Suppose  an  ancient  bed  of  the  Mississippi,  or  some  low  part 
of  the  plain,  to  become  fit  for  the  growth  of  cypress,  yet  to  be 
occasionally  flooded,  so  that  the  soil  is  slowly  raised  by  fine  mud, 
drift  wood,  or  vegetable  matter  like  peat.  As  the  cypress  (  Taxo- 
diuin  distichum}  often  attains  to  the  age  of  three  or  four  centu 
ries,  and,  according  to  many  accounts,  occasionally  in  Louisiana 
to  that  of  two  thousand  years,  it  is  clear  that  the  bottoms  of  the 
oldest  trees  will  often  be  enveloped  in  soil  several  feet  deep,  before 
they  die,  and  rot  down  to  the  point  where  they  have  been  covered 
up  with  mud.  In  the  mean  time  other  trees  will  have  begun  to 
grow  on  adjoining  spots,  at  different  and  considerably  higher  levels, 
and  eventually  some  of  these  will  take  root  in  soil  deposited  directly 
over  the  stump  or  decayed  trunk  of  some  of  the  first  or  oldest 
series  of  cypresses.  They  who  have  studied  the  delta  affirm  that 
such  successive  growths  of  trees  are  repeated  through  a  perpendic 
ular  height  of  twenty-five  feet  without  any  change  occurring  in 
the  level  of  the  land.*' 

Proceeding  up  the  river,  we  soon  passed  Bayou  Sara  on  our 
right  hand,  and  came  to  the  isthmus  called  the  Raccourci  cut 
off,  across  which  a  trench  nine  feet  deep  has  been  dug,  in  the 
hope  that  the  Mississippi  would  sweep  out  a  deep  channel.  This 
"  cut-off/'  should  it  ever  become  the  main  channel,  would  enable 
a  steamer  to  reach,  in  one  mile,  a  point,  to  gain  which  costs 
now  a  circuit  of  twenty-six  miles,  and  two  and  a  half  hours. 
Unfortunately,  when  they  cleared  the  forest  in  this  spot,  the  soil 
of  the  new  canal  was  found  to  consist  of  a  stiff  blue  clay, 

*  See  Dickeson  and  Brown,  Silliman's  Journal,  Second  Series,  vol.  v.  p. 
17,  Jan.  1848. 


CHAP.  XXXI.]  RACCOURCI   CUT-OFF.  1 19 

strengthened  by  innumerable  roots  of  trees,  and,  in  the  flood  of 
1845,  the  surplus  waters  of  the  Mississippi  poured  through  the 
cut  with  great  velocity,  yet  failed  to  deepen  it  materially.  By 
shortening  the  channel  twenty-five  miles,  the  fall  of  the  river 
would  be  augmented,  and  the  engineer  flattered  himself  that  the 
effect  might  extend  as  far  up  as  the  mouth  of  the  Red  River. 
By  accelerating  the  current  there  it  was  hoped  that  a  deeper 
passage  might  be  kept  open  in  the  sand-bar,  which  now  blocks 
up  the  navigation  of  that  important  tributary  for  the  greater 
part  of  the  year. 

Some  experienced  pilots  assured  me,  that  the  supposed  short 
ening  of  the  channel  of  the  Mississippi,  between  its  junction  with 
the  Ohio  and  New  Orleans,  was,  in  a  great  degree,  a  delusion. 
Instead  of  the  boasted  gain  of  fifty  miles,  they  say  that  not  a 
third  of  this  distance  has  been  realized.  Immediately  after  the 
completion  of  a  new  cut-off",  the  Mississippi  begins  to  restore  the 
natural  curvature  of  its  channel  by  eating  away  one  bank  and 
throwing  out  a  sand-bar  on  the  opposite  side. 

Another  fifty  miles  brought  us  to  the  mouth  of  the  Red  River, 
where  I  saw  the  formidable  bar,  before  alluded  to,  covered,  for 
the  most  part,  by  a  growth  of  young  willows  and  cotton-wood 
(Populus  angulata).  After  leaving  the  mouth  of  Red  River, 
we  passed  two  bluffs  on  the  left  or  eastern  bank,  one  that  of 
Fort  Adams,  a  very  picturesque  line  of  precipices,  the  other  called 
Ellis's  Cliffs.  In  both  I  observed  a  predominance  of  white  sand, 
similar  to  that  seen  in  part  of  the  bluff  at  Port  Hudson. 

At  Natchez  (where  I  rejoined  my  wife),  there  is  a  fine  range 
of  bluffs,  several  miles  long,  and  more  than  200  feet  in  perpen 
dicular  height,  the  base  of  which  is  washed  by  the  river.  The 
lower  strata,  laid  open  to  view,  consist  of  gravel  and  sand,  desti 
tute  of  organic  remains,  except  some  wood  and  silicified  corals, 
and  other  fossils,  which  have  been  derived  from  older  rocks  ; 
while  the  upper  sixty  feet  are  composed  of  yellow  loam,  present 
ing,  as  it  wastes  away,  a  vertical  face  toward  the  river.  From 
the  surface  of  this  clayey  precipice  are  seen,  projecting  in  relief, 
the  whitened  and  perfect  shells  of  land-snails,  of  the  genera  Helix, 
lldiclna,  Pupa,  C//clostoma,  Achatina,  and  Succinca.  These 


150  FRESH-WATER  LOAM  OF  NATCHEZ.    [CHAP.  XXXI. 


shells,  of  which  we  collected  twenty  species,  are  all  specifically 
identical  with  those  now  inhabiting  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi. 
The  resemblance  of  this  loam  to  that  fluviatile  silt  of  the  val 
ley  of  the  Rhine,  between  Cologne  and  Basle,  which  is  generally 
called  "  loess"  and  "  lehm"  in  Alsace,  is  most  perfect.  In  both 
countries  the  genera  of  shells  are  the  same,  and  as,  in  the  ancient 
alluvium  of  the  Rhine,  the  loam  sometimes  passes  into  a  lacus 
trine  deposit  containing  shells  of  the  genera  Lymnea,  Planorbis, 
and  Cydas,  so  I  found  at  Washington,  about  seven  miles  inland, 
or  eastward  from  Natchez,  a  similar  passage  of  the  American 
loam  into  a  deposit  evidently  formed  in  a  pond  or  lake.  It  con 
sisted  of  marl  containing  shells  of  Lymnea,  Planorbis,  Paludiiia, 
PUysa,  and  Cyclas,  specifically  agreeing  with  testacea  now 
inhabiting  the  United  States.  With  the  land-shells  before  men 
tioned  are  found,  at  different  depths  in  the  loam,  the  remains  of 
the  mastodon  ;  and  in  clay,  immediately  under  the  loam,  and 
above  the  sand  and  gravel,  entire  skeletons  have  been  met  with 
of  the  megalonyx,  associated  with  the  bones  of  the  horse,  bear, 
stag,  ox,  and  other  quadrupeds,  for  the  most  part,  if  not  all,  of 
extinct  species.  This  great  loamy  formation,  with  terrestrial 
and  fresh-water  shells,  extends  horizontally  for  about  twelve 
miles  inland,  or  eastward  from  the  river,  forming  a  platform 
about  200  feet  high  above  the  great  plain  of  the  Mississippi. 
In  consequence,  however,  of  the  incoherent  arid  destructible 
nature  of  the  sandy  clay,  every  streamlet  flowing  over  what 
must  originally  have  been  a  level  table-land,  has  cut  out  for 
itself,  in  its  way  to  the  Mississippi,  a  deep  gully  or  ravine.  This 
excavating  process  has,  of  late  years,  proceeded  with  accelerated 
speed,  especially  in  the  course  of  the  last  thirty  or  thirty-five 
years.  Some  attribute  the  increased  erosive  action  to  partial 
clearings  of  the  native  forest,  a  cause  of  which  the  power  has 
been  remarkably  displayed,  as  before  stated,  within  the  last 
twenty  years,  in  Georgia.*  Others  refer  the  change  mainly  to 
the  effects  of  the  great  earthquake  of  New  Madrid,  in  1811—12, 
by  which  this  region  was  much  fissured,  ponds  being  dried  up 
and  many  landslips  caused. 

*  See  tonte,  p.  29. 


CHAP.  XXX I.]  FOSSIL  HUMAN  BONE.  151 

In  company  with  Dr.  Dickeson  and  Colonel  Wales,  I  visited 
a  narrow  valley,  hollowed  out  through  the  shelly  loam  recently 
named  "  the  Mammoth  ravine,"  from  the  fossils  found  there. 
Colonel  Wiley,  a  proprietor  of  that  part  of  the  State  of  Mississippi, 
who  knew  the  country  well  before  the  year  1812,  assured  me 
that  this  ravine,  although  now  seven  miles  long,  and  in  some  parts 
sixty  feet  deep,  with  its  numerous  ramifications,  has  been  entirely 
formed  since  the  earthquake.  He  himself  had  plowed  some  of 
the  land  exactly  over  one  spot  which  the  gully  now  traverses. 

A  considerable  sensation  was  recently  caused  in  the  public 
mind,  both  in  America  and  Europe,  by  the  announcement  of  the 
discovery  of  a  fossil  human  bone,  so  associated  with  the  remains 
of  extinct  quadrupeds,  in  "  the  Mammoth  ravine,"  as  to  prove 
that  man  must  have  co-existed  with  the  rnegalonyx  and  its  con 
temporaries.  Dr.  Dickeson  showed  me  the  bone  in  question, 
admitted  by  all  anatomists  to  be  part  of  a  human  pelvis,  and 
being  a  fragment  of  the  os  innominatmn.  He  felt  persuaded 
that  it  had  been  taken  out  of  the  clay  underlying  the  loam,  in 
the  ravine  above  alluded  to,  about  six  miles  from  Natchez.  I 
examined  the  perpendicular  cliffs,  which  bound  a  part  of  this 
water-course,  where  the  loam,  unsolidified  as  it  is,  retains  its 
verticality,  and  found  land-shells  in  great  numbers  at  the  depth 
of  about  thirty  feet  from  the  top.  I  was  informed  that  the  fossil 
remains  of  the  mammoth  (a  name  commonly  applied  in  the  Unit 
ed  States  to  the  mastodon)  had  been  obtained,  together  with  the 
bones  of  some  other  extinct  mammalia,  from  below  these  shells 
in  the  undermined  cliff.  I  could  not  ascertain,  however,  that 
the  human  pelvis  had  been  actually  dug  out  in  the  presence  of 
a  geologist,  or  any  practiced  observer,  and  its  position  unequivo 
cally  ascertained.  Like  most  of  the  other  fossils,  it  was,  I 
believe,  picked  up  in  the  bed  of  the  stream,  which  would  simply 
imply  that  it  had  been  washed  out  of  the  cliffs.  But  the  evi 
dence  of  the  antiquity  of  the  bone  depends  entirely  on  the  part 
of  the  precipice  from  which  it  was  derived.  It  was  stained 
black,  as  if  buried  in  a  peaty  or  vegetable  soil,  and  may  have 
been  dislodged  from  some  old  Indian  grave  near  the  top,  in 
which  case  it  may  only  have  been  five,  ten,  or  twenty  centuries 


152  TORNADO  AT  NATCHEZ.  [CHAP.  XXXI. 


old  ;  whereas,  if  it  was  really  found  in  situ  at  the  base  of  the 
precipice,  its  age  would  more  probably  exceed  100,000  years,  as 
1  shall  endeavor  to  show  in  a  subsequent  chapter.  Such  a  posi 
tion,  in  fact,  if  well  authenticated,  would  prove  that  man  had 
lived  in  North  America  before  the  last  great  revolution  in  the 
physical  geography  of  this  continent  had  been  accomplished  ;  in 
other  words,  that  our  race  was  more  ancient  than  the  modern 
valley,  alluvial  plain,  and  delta  of  the  Mississippi — nay,  what  is 
more,  was  antecedent  to  the  bluffs  of  Port  Hudson  and  Natchez, 
already  described.  Now  that  elevated  fresh-water  formation,  as 
I  shall  by  and  by  endeavor  to  show,  is  the  remnant  of  a  river- 
plain  arid  delta  of  extremely  high  antiquity  ;  and  it  would  follow, 
if  the  human  race  was  equally  ancient,  that  it  co-existed  with 
one  group  of  terrestrial  mammalia,  and,  having  survived  its 
extinction,  had  seen  another  group  of  quadrupeds  succeed  and 
replace  it. 

In  our  excursion  through  the  forest,  from  Washington  to  the 
Mammoth  ravine,  I  crossed  the  path  of  the  last  tornado,  which 
occurred  May  17,  1840,  one  of  three  which  have  devastated 
this  region  since  the  year  1809.  They  all  came  from  Texas, 
moving  along  from  southwest  to  northeast,  and  laid  waste  a 
long  strip  of  country,  about  a  mile  wide.  The  courses  of  each 
of  the  three  whirlwinds  were  within  a  few  miles  of  the  other, 
and  the  last  threw  down  many  houses  at  Natchez,  unroofed 
others,  and  leveled  to  the  ground  a  railway  terminus,  causing 
the  abandonment  of  a  scheme  for  a  rapid  communication  between 
Natchez,  Vicksburg,  and  the  State  of  Tennessee.  On  each  side 
of  the  path  of  the  tornado  the  land  was  finely  timbered  ;  but 
where  its  force  had  been  expended,  old  trees  lay  uprooted,  and  a 
growth  of  young  wood  wras  rising.  Many  large  trunks  had  been 
broken  off  ten  or  twelve  feet  above  the  ground,  and  portions  of 
the  solid  wood,  torn  and  twisted  into  shreds,  were  still  waving 
in  the  air. 

This  tornado  checked  the  progress  of  Natchez,  as  did  the 
removal  of  the  seat  of  legislature  to  Jackson  ;  but  it  has  suffered 
still  more,  since  steam  navigation  has  been  so  much  improved, 
by  the  all-absorbing  importance  acquired  by  New  Orleans  as  the 


CHAP.  XXXI.]  COUNTRY-HOUSES. 


great  emporium  of  the  whole  trade  of  the  Mississippi.  There 
are,  however,  so  few  bluffs  on  the  great  river,  so  few  places 
where  the  channel  will  remain  constant  for  ages  to  the  same 
spot,  that  I  can  not  doubt  that  this  city  must,  in  time,  become 
large  and  prosperous. 

It  augurs  favorably  of  the  future  prospects  of  civilization  in 
America,  that  here,  as  elsewhere,  we  found  the  society  most 
agreeable  in  places  which  have  been  the  longest  settled.  If  the 
political  opinions  and  notions  of  honor  cherished  by  the  majority 
of  the  citizens  of  Natchez,  had  had  their  due  weight  in  the  legisla 
tion  of  the  state,  the  fair  fame  of  Mississippi,  and  her  credit,  would 
have  stood  as  high  as  that  of  any  other  southern  state.  Many 
of  the  country-houses  in  the  neighborhood  are  elegant,  and  some 
of  the  gardens  belonging  to  them  laid  out  in  the  English,  others 
in  the  French  style.  In  the  latter  are  seen  terraces,  with  statues 
and  cut  evergreens,  straight  walks  with  borders  of  flowers,  ter 
minated  by  views  into  the  wild  forest,  the  charms  of  both  being 
heightened  by  contrast.  Some  of  the  hedges  are  made  of  that 
beautiful  North  American  plant,  the  Gardenia,  miscalled  in 
England  the  Cape  jessamine,  others  of  the  Cherokee  rose,  with 
its  bright  and  shining  leaves.  It  had  already  put  forth  some  of 
its  white  flowers,  which  a  month  later  would  be  in  full  blow. 
The  woods  here,  when  all  the  trees  are  in  full  foliage,  and  the 
tall  magnolias  in  blossom,  must  be  truly  beautiful.  But  so 
intense  is  the  heat,  and  such  the  danger  of  ague  and  the  torment 
of  musquitos,  that,  at  that  season,  they  who  can  afford  to  move, 
fly  to  some  higher  or  more  northern  retreat. 

On  the  steep  slope  of  the  bluffs  at  Natchez,  below  the  vertical 
face  of  shelly  loam,  the  Judas-tree,  or  red-bud  (Cercis.  canademis), 
was  now  in  full  flower,  displaying  a  blaze  of  pink  blossoms  before 
it  has  put  forth  any  leaves.  I  saw  four  landslips  on  these  bluffs 
which  have  occurred  within  the  last  tea  years,  for  the  springs 
which  burst  from  the  sand  ancterra^ne.  the  clayey  loam.  They 
are  instructive,  as  showing  How  the  bluffs  give  way  as  the  Mis 
sissippi  gradually  extends.  \ta  course  eastward.  There  is  one 
hollow  of  ancient  date,  caused  by  a  similar  undermining,  called 
the  Devil's  Punch-bowl,  a  picturesque,  crater-shaped  basin,  of 

G* 


154  INDIAN  ANTIQUITIES.  [CHAP.  XXXI. 

about  300  yards  diameter  at  the  top,  and  100  yards  at  the  bot 
tom,  where  cypresses  and  gum-trees  are  growing.  At  the  top 
are  seen  the  cotton-wood,  the  maple,  and  the  magnolia,  mixed 
with  pines. 

The  name  of  Natchez  has  been  derived  from  an  Indian  tribe, 
and  on  the  highest  part  of  the  bluff,  on  an  eminence  called  St. 
Rosalie,  are  some  Indian  mounds,  from  which  Dr.  Dickeson  has 
obtained  some  curious  remains  of  pottery,  showing  that  some  of  the 
aboriginal  inhabitants  of  the  great  valley  had  made  much  greater 
progress  in  the  arts  than  their  descendants  whom  the  Europeans 
drove  out.  One  morning,  close  to  the  spot  where  these  antiqui 
ties  were  dug  up,  we  saw  a  wild-looking  group  of  Indians,  whose 
aspect  gave  no  token  that  their  contact  with  Europeans  had 
tended  to  revive  the  spirit  of  improvement  which  must  once  have 
animated  some  of  their  predecessors  in  this  region. 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 

Natchez. — Vidalia  and  Lake  Concordia. — Hibernation  of  Alligator. — 
Bonfire  on  Floating  Raft. — Grand  Gulf. — Magnolia  Steamer. — Vicksburg 
to  Jackson  (Mississippi)  by  Railway. — Fossils  on  Pearl  River. — Ordinary 
at  Jackson. — Story  of  Transfer  of  State-House  from  Natchez. — Vote  by 
Ballot. — Popular  Election  of  Judges. — Voyage  from  Vicksburg  to  Mem 
phis. — Monotony  of  River  Scenery. — Squall  of  Wind. — Actors  on  Board. 
— Negro  mistaken  for  White. — Manners  in  the  Backwoods. — Inquisitive- 
ness. — Spoiled  Children. — Equality  and  Leveling. — Silence  of  English 
Newspapers  on  Oregon  Question. 

March  15,  1846. — FROM  Natchez  we  crossed  the  river,  by 
the  ferry,  to  Vidalia,  situated  on  the  low  river  plain,  on  a  level 
with  the  base  of  the  bluffs  before  described.  We  were  accompa 
nied  by  Mr.  Davis,  a  large  proprietor,  who  took  us  to  see  his 
negro-houses,  all  neatly  built  and  well  whitewashed.  Even  in 
this  cursory  view  we  could  perceive  how  much  the  comfort  and 
bodily  wants  of  the  slaves  had  been  attended  to.  We  had  now 
left  the  country  where  sugar  and  cotton  are  the  staple  products, 
and  had  just  entered  the  region  where  cotton  and  Indian  corn 
are  cultivated  together.  Here,  as  in  Louisiana,  the  negroes 
constitute  half,  and  sometir^s  more  than  half,  the  population  on 
the  borders  of  the  Mississippi. 

At  Vidalia  we  were  joined  by  Mr.  Forshey,  the  engineer, 
who  went  with  us  to  Lake  Concordia,  a  fine  example  of  an  old 
bend  of  the  Mississippi,  recently  detached  and  converted  into  a 
crescent-shaped  lake,  surrounded  by  wood.  It  is  a  fine  sheet  of 
water,  fifteen  miles  long,  if  measured  by  a  curved  line  drawn 
through  the  middle.  The  old  levee,  or  embankment,  is  still 
seen  ;  but  it  is  no  longer  necessary  to  keep  it  in  repair,  for,  a 
few  years  ago,  the  channel  which  once  connected  this  bend  with 
the  main  river  was  silted  up.  Opposite  Natchez  the  depth  of 
the  Mississippi  varies  from  100  feet  to  150  feet,  but  Lake  Con 
cordia  has  nowhere  a  greater  depth  than  40  feet.  There  are 


156  LAKE  CONCORDIA.  [CHAP.  XXXII. 

thirteen  similar  lakes  between  the  mouth  of  the  Arkansas  and 
Baton  Pvouge,  all  near  the  Mississippi,  and  produced  by  cut-offs ; 
and  so  numerous  are  the  channels  which  communicate  from  one 
to  the  other,  that  a  canoe  may  pass,  during  the  flood  season, 
from  Lake  Concordia,  and  reach  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  without  once 
entering  the  Mississippi.  We  were  shown  a  cypress  tree  on  the 
borders  of  this  deserted  river  bend,  from  under  the  roots  of  which, 
a  few  days  before  the  time  of  our  visit,  a  she  alligator  had  come 
out  on  a  warm  day,  the  place  of  her  hybemation  appearing  to  be 
half  in  the  mud  and  half  in  the  water.  She  brought  out  with 
her  two  broods,  one  born  in  the  preceding  summer,  which  were 
six  inches  long,  and  the  others,  an  older  set,  about  a  foot  long. 
When  Mr.  Forshey  approached  them,  the  young  ones  yelped  like 
puppies,  and  the  old  one  hissed.  On  the  shore  of  the  lake  we 
caught  a  tortoise,  called  here  the  snapping-turtle,  and  found  that 
all  its  feet  had  been  bitten  off — devoured,  our  companions  sup 
posed,  by  predaceous  fish.  The  fresh-water  shells,  of  which  we 
obtained  specimens  from  the  lake,  belong  to  the  genera  Lymnea, 
Planorbis,  Paludina,  Anchylotus,  Physa,  Cyclas,  and  Unio. 
Wre  put  up  flights  of  water-fowl  of  various  species,  chiefly  wild 
ducks,  which  were  swimming  about.  On  the  top  of  a  pole, 
driven  into  the  mud  near  the  margin  of  the  lake,  was  perched  a 
kingfisher,  and  two  cormorants  were  wheeling  round  it,  one  with 
a  fish  in  its  mouth,  which  the  other  was  trying  to  snatch  away. 
The  water,  although  much  clearer  than  the  Mississippi,  was  not 
transparent,  for  it  had  communicated,  during  the  late  inunda 
tions,  with  the  great  river.  In  this  manner  sediment  is  annually 
introduced  into  such  basins,  and  in  the  course  of  ages  Lake  Con 
cordia  may  become  so  shallow  as  to  support  a  forest  of  swamp 
timber.  Some  modern  concretions  of  clay  and  lime,  and  of  clay 
containing  iron,  which  I  picked  up  from  the  mud  of  the  Missis 
sippi  bordering  this  lake,  were  so  like  those  associated  with  the 
ancient  buried  forest  at  Port  Hudson,  and  the  shelly  loam  of 
Natchez,  as  to  confirm  me  in  the  opinion  before  expressed,  that 
the  cliffs  there,  although  of  very  high  antiquity,  correspond  in 
origin  with  the  recent  fluviatile  formations  of  the  alluvial  plain. 
March  17. — We  established  ourselves  in  the  wharf-boat  at 


CHAP.  XXXII. ]       BONFIRE  ON  FLOATING  RAFT.  157 

Natchez,  prepared  for  a  start  in  the  first  steamer  which  would 
take  us  to  Grand  Gulf,  fifty  miles  higher  up.  We  amused  our 
selves  by  watching  a  party  of  young  negro  boys,  who  collected 
the  drift  wood  which  bordered  the  river,  and,  having  tied  it 
together  into  a  raft,  heaped  some  dead  branches  of  trees  upon  it, 
placing  a  layer  of  shavings  under  the  pile.  Having  set  it  on 
fire,  they  pushed  it'off  from  the  shore,  and  exulted  as  they  saw 
the  floating  bonfire,  in  the  dusk  of  the  evening,  throwing  a  glar 
ing  light  on  the  bluffs,  town,  and  shipping.  The  raft  was  car 
ried  round  and  round  in  the  great  eddies  near  the  bank,  and  the 
urchins  shouted  when  their  love  of  mischief  was  gratified  by 
seeing  the  alarm  of  the  boatmen,  each  of  whom  was  observing 
the  wandering  fire  with  some  anxiety,  lest  it  should  come  too 
near  his  own  craft.  In  the  cabin  of  the  wharf-boat  we  found  no 
furniture,  but  were  supplied  with  two  chairs,  which,  like  the 
walls  and  ceiling,  were  of  unpainted  wood.  As  it  grew  dark, 
they  brought  in  a  table  and  a  single  candle.  We  were  not  sorry 
when  the  Peytona  was  announced,  and  we  were  ushered  into  a 
splendid  saloon,  150  feet  long,  lighted  by  two  large  chandeliers  sus 
pended  from  the  ceiling,  and  supplied  with  brilliant  gas,  manufac 
tured  on  board.  The  mattresses  of  our  beds  were  clastic,  made 
of  India  rubber,  no  unmeaning  luxury,  for  we  were  awakened 
before  morning  by  the  bumping  of  the  boat  against  one  floating 
log  after  another,  and,  in  spite  of  the  frequent  stoppage  of  the 
engine,  no  small  damage  was  done  to  the  paddle-wheels,  which 
got  entangled  with  the  drift  timber.  We  reached  Grand  Gulf 
when  morning  had  scarcely  dawned,  and  found  the  floor  of  the 
saloon  covered  with  the  sleeping  colored  servants,  over  whom  we 
had  to  step.  The  river  had  risen  twenty-five  feet  in  two  days, 
and  was  more  turbid  than  we  had  yet  seen  it. 

The  blulf  at  Grand  Gulf  is  about  180  feet  high,  the  upper 
most  60  feet,  composed,  as  at  Natchez,  of  yellow  loam  or  loess, 
beneath  which  was  white  quartzose  sand,  partially  concreted  into 
solid  sandstone,  which  is  quarried  here  for  building.  From  the 
summit,  the  river-plain  to  the  westward  seemed  as  level,  blue, 
and  boundless  as  the  ocean.  As  we  had  now  traveled  two 
degrees  of  latitude  northward,  the  spring  was  not  more  advanced 


158  GRAND  GULF— MAGNOLIA  STEAMER.     [CHAP.  XXXII. 

than  when  we  left  New  Orleans,  but  the  woods  crowning  the 
bluffs  are  beautiful  from  the  variety  of  trees,  many  of  them  ever 
greens,  and  we  were  charmed  with  the  melody  of  the  mocking 
birds,  and  the  warm  sun  brought  out  many  large  and  brilliantly 
colored  butterflies,  and  more  insects  of  other  kinds  than  I  had 
yet  seen  in  the  south.  Among  these  were  a  beetle  (Phaneus 
carnifex),  with  green  and  gold  wing-cases,  and  a  horn  on  the 
thorax.  The  name  of  bug  is  given  to  all  beetles  (Coleopteral) 
here,  and  does  not  seem  to  awaken  the  same  unpleasant  associa 
tions  as  it  suggests  to  English  ears.  Even  the  elegant  fire-fly  is 
called  a  lightning-bug,  and  ladies  who  have  diamond  beetles  set 
in  brooches,  ask  you  to  admire  their  beautiful  bugs.  The  Lon 
doners,  by  way  of  compensation,  miscall  the  cockroach  a  black 
beetle. 

From  Grand  Gulf  we  embarked  in  the  Magnolia,  which  had 
brought  my  wife  to  Natchez,  and,  having  since  made  a  trip  to 
St.  Louis  and  New  Orleans,  was  on  its  return  up  the  river.  It 
is  a  new  boat,  and,  among  other  improvements,  has  a  separate 
sleeping  cabin  for  the  colored  servants.  The  furniture  in  the 
principal  saloon  is  of  fine  Utrecht  velvet,  and  the  hanging  lusters 
for  gas  very  brilliant  :  the  beds  excellent ;  but  the  powerful 
vibration  caused  by  the  machinery  far  from  agreeable.  Our 
state  room  contained  a  chest  of  drawers,  and  cupboards  for  hang 
ing  up  ladies'  dresses.  Ample  time  was  allowed  for  dinner,  and 
we  thought  the  fare  only  too  sumptuous.  The  repast  began 
with  turtle  soup,  and  two  kinds  of  fish  ;  then  followed  a  variety 
of  made  dishes,  admirably  cooked,  and  then  a  course  of  cocoa-nut 
pies,  jellies,  preserved  bananas,  oranges,  grapes,  and  ice-creams, 
concluding  with  coffee.  The  claret  was  excellent,  and  it  may 
seem  strange,  at  first,  that  they  who  indulge  in  such  luxuries, 
can  drink  freely  of  the  opaque,  unfiltered  water  of  the  Mississippi. 
But  this  fluid  has,  at  least  the  merit  of  being  cool  on  a  hot  day, 
and  is  believed  to  be  very  wholesome.  We  found  it  pleasant  to 
the  taste,  however  untempting  to  the  sight.  Few  of  the  praises 
bestowed  by  Denham  on  the  Thames  can  be  lavished  on  the 
Mississippi ;  for,  though  deep,  it  is  not  clear,  nor  is  it  "  without 
o'erflowing  full."  Yet,  in  spite  of  the  occasional  undermining 


CHAP.  XXXII.]  VICKSBURG  TO  JACKSON.  159 

of  forests  on  its  banks,  it  may  be  truly  characterized  as  "  strong, 
without  rage  ;"  absorbing,  as  it  does,  in  its  course,  one  great 
tributary  after  another,  several  of  them  scarcely  inferior  in  width 
to  itself,  without  widening  its  channel,  and  in  this  manner  car 
rying  down  noiselessly  to  the  sea  its  vast  column  of  water  and 
solid  matter,  while  the  greater  part  of  its  alluvial  plain  is  left 
undisturbed. 

A  settler  at  Natchez  told  us  he  had  lived  on  the  great  river 
long  enough  to  admire  it,  for  the  ease  with  which  it  performs  its 
mighty  work  ;  and  to  fear  it,  so  often  had  he  witnessed  the  wreck 
of  vessels  and  the  loss  of  lives.  "  If  you  fall  overboard,"  he  said, 
"  in  the  middle  of  the  Atlantic,  you  may  rise  again  and  be  saved  ; 
but  here  you  are  sucked  down  by  an  eddy,  and  the  waters,  closing 
over  you.  are  so  turbid,  that  you  are  never  seen  again." 

March  19. — At  Vicksburg,  where  we  next  landed,  I  found 
the  bluffs,  forming  the  eastern  boundary  of  the  great  plain,  similar, 
in  their  upper  part,  to  those  of  Natchez  ;  but  beneath  the  fresh 
water  loam  and  sand  were  seen,  at  the  base  of  the  cliffs,  a  marine 
tertiary  deposit,  of  the  Eocene  period,  in  which  we  collected  many 
shells  and  corals.  (See  fig.  10,  p.  193  ;  and  3,  fig.  11,  p.  196.) 

Leaving  my  wile  to  rest  at  the  hotel,  I  made  a  rapid  trip  by 
railway,  fifty-five  miles  eastward,  to  Jackson,  the  capital  of  the 
State  of  Mississippi.  For  the  first  ten  miles,  the  cars  traversed 
a  table-land,  corresponding  in  height  with  the  summit  of  the  bluff 
at  Vicksburg,  and  preserving  an  even  surface,  except  where  gullies 
had  been  hollowed  out  in  the  soft  shelly  loam  or  loess.  These 
are  numerous,  and  it  had  been  necessary  to  throw  bridges  over 
many  of  them  so  as  to  preserve  the  level  of  the  road.  It  was 
curious  to  observe,  in  the  cuttings  made  through  the  loam,  that 
each  precipitous  face  retained  its  perpendicularity,  as  in  natural 
sections,  although  composed  of  materials  wholly  uriconsolidated. 
Farther  to  the  east,  the  Eocene  strata,  belonging  to  the  same 
series,  which  are  seen  at  the  bottom  of  the  bluffs  at  Vicksburg, 
rise  up  to  the  surface  from  beneath  the  fresh-water  loam,  which 
attains  an  elevation  of  about  250  feet  above  the  sea,  and  then 
gives  place  to  older  rocks. 

We  passed  through  large   forests  of  oaks  and  beeches,  just 


1GO  FOSSILS  ON  PEARL  RTVER.          [CHAP.  XXXII. 

coming  into  leaf,  in  which  Avere  some  green  hollies.  The  red- 
bud,  in.  blossom,  was  conspicuous  in  some  of  the  woods.  In  the 
wet  grounds  were  cane-brakes,  willows,  and  magnolias.  I  observed, 
in  a  large  clearing,  three  plows  following  each  other,  one  guided 
by  a  man,  and  the  others  each  by  a  negro  woman.  When  we 
reached  the  Big  Black  River,  twelve  miles  from  Vicksburg,  we 
passed  over  a  long  wooden  bridge  arid  viaduct,  built  on  piles, 
nearly  a  mile  in  length.  In  about  four  hours,  we  arrived  at  the 
town  of  Jackson.  I  was  wholly  without  letters  of  introduction, 
having  suddenly  determined  on  this  excursion,  arid  knew  not  the 
name  of  a  single  individual  ;  which  I  regretted  the  more,  as  I 
had  only  a  few  hours  of  daylight  at  my  disposal,  and  was  to  return 
by  the  cars  at  noon  the  day  following.  I  inquired,  as  I  had  often 
done  in  France  on  similar  occasions,  for  the  nearest  pharmacien, 
or  chemist,  and,  being  shown  a  shop,  asked  if  they  knew  any  one 
who  was  interested  in  geology.  The  chemist  informed  me  that 
Dr.  Gist,  a  physician,  lodged  in  the  floor  above,  and  might  assist 
me.  Fortunately,  this  gentleman  was  at  home,  and,  telling  me 
he  had  read  my  work  on  Geology,  he  presented  me  with  some 
fossil  shells  and  corals  collected  by  him  in  the  neighborhood  ;  and, 
within  ten  minutes  of  my  "  landing"  from  the  cars,  \ve  were  on 
our  way  together  to  explore  the  dried-up  channel  of  a  small 
tributary  of  the  Pearl  River,  where  I  found  a  rich  harvest  of 
fossil  marine  shells  and  zoophytes.  When  we  parted,  my  excellent 
guide  agreed  to  accompany  me,  early  the  next  morning,  many 
miles  in  another  direction. 

On  entering  my  hotel,  after  dark,  I  was  informed  that  supper 
was  ready,  and  was  conducted  to  a  large  ordinary,  crowded  chiefly 
by  lawyers,  who  were  attending  the  courts  here.  The  landlord, 

General  A ,  formerly  of  the  Tennessee  militia,  played  the 

part  of  master  of  the  ceremonies,  much  to  my  amusement.  He 
first  obtained  silence  by  exclaiming,  with  the  loud  voice  of  a  herald, 
"  Gentlemen,  we  are  a  great  people,"  and  then  called  out  the 
names  of  all  the  viands  on  his  long  table  and  sideboard,  beginning 
with  "  Beef-steak,  with  or  without  onions,  roast  turkey,  pork, 
hominy,  fish,  eggs,  &c.,  and  ending  with  a  list  of  various  drink 
ables,  the  last  of  which  was  "  tea,  foreign  and  domestic." 


CHAP.  XXXII.]         TRANSFER  OF  STATE-HOUSE.  Id 

Curiosity  led  me  to  order  the  last-mentioned  beverage  ;  but  I 
soon  repented,  finding  it  to  be  a  liquid  of  a  pink  color,  made  of  the 
root  of  the  sassafras  tree,  and  having  a  very  medicinal  taste.  I 
was  told  that  many  here  drink  it  for  their  health ;  but  the  general, 
seeing  that  I  did  not  relish  it,  supplied  me  with  some  good  "  foreign" 
tea.  My  host  then  introduced  me  to  several  of  the  lawyers  who 
sat  near  me,  which  gave  me  an  opportunity  of  asking  whether 
there  was  any  truth  in  the  story  told  me  by  some  of  the  Whigs 
at  New  Orleans,  of  the  manner  in  which  the  seat  of  legislature 
had  been  transferred  from  Natchez  to  Jackson.  I  related  the 
story,  which  was  as  follows  : — ' '  Natchez  was  the  metropolis  of 
the  state,  and  the  chief  town  of  Adams  County,  which  was  so 
wealthy  as  to  pay  a  third  of  all  the  taxes  in  Mississippi.  It  was 
a  city  to  which  the  richest  and  best-informed  citizens  resorted, 
representing  both  the  landed  and  moneyed  interests  of  the  state. 
It  was,  moreover,  a  center  of  communication,  because  it  com 
manded  the  navigation  of  the  great  river.  That  the  Houses  of 
Legislature  should  meet  here,  was  so  natural  and  convenient,  so 
fitted  to  promote  good  government,  that  the  Democratic  party 
could  not  be  expected  to  put  up,  for  many  years,  with  an  arrange 
ment  of  affairs  so  reasonable  and  advantageous.  They  accord 
ingly  decided,  by  a  majority,  that  some  change  must  be  made, 
and  gave  orders  to  a  surveyor  to  discover  the  exact  geographical 
center  of  the  state.  He  found  it  in  a  wilderness,  about  fifty  miles 
in  a  straight  line  east  of  Natchez,  and  pointed  out  an  old  cypress 
tree,  in  the  middle  of  a  swamp,  accessible  only  by  a  canoe,  as  the 
spot  they  were  in  search  of.  This  was  welcome  news ;  all  might 
now  be  placed  on  a  footing  of  equality,  the  spot  being  equally 
inaccessible  and  inconvenient  for  all.  When  the  architect,  how 
ever,  came  to  build  the  capitol,  he  took  the  liberty,  instead  of 
erecting  the  edifice  on  piles  in  the  center  of  the  swamp,  to  place 
it  on  an  adjoining  rising  ground,  from  which  they  had  cleared 
away  the  native  wood,  a  serious  abandonment  of  principle,  as  it 
was  several  hundred  yards  from  the  true  geographical  center.'1 

When  my  auditors  had  done  laughing  at  this  Louisiana  version 
of  a  passage  in  their  history,  they  said,  the  tale,  after  all,  was 
not  so  exaggerated  as  it  might  have  been,  considering  the  vexation 


1G2  VOTE  BY  BALLOT.  [CHAP.  XXXIT. 


under  which  the  New  Orleans  Whigs  were  smarting,  in  having 
to  go  to  Baton  Rouge.  They  could  show  me,  they  said,  the 
swamp  on  the  Pearl  River,  which  must  have  been  alluded  to. 
That  river,  though  now  only  beatable,  might,  they  declared,  be 
made  navigable  to  steamboats,  when  the  rafts  of  drift  timber 
were  cleared  away,  and  they  might  then  have  a  direct  commer 
cial  intercourse  with  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  The  soil,  also,  sur 
rounding  Jackson,  had  proved  to  be  very  fertile,  and  the  railway 
had  brought  the  place  within  three  or  four  hours  of  Natchez,  now 
their  port.  In  short,  their  town  was  flourishing,  by  aid  of  natural 
advantages,  and  the  patronage  of  the  Legislature  and  Law  Courts. 

Next  day,  after  a  geological  excursion,  I  wras  taken  to  see  the 
State  House  and  Governor's  Mansion,  both  handsome  and  com 
modious,  arid  built  in  a  good  style  of  architecture,  but  at  great 
expense,  at  a  time  when  the  price  of  labor  happened  to  be  un 
usually  high.  I  heard  much  regret  expressed  at  the  debts  they 
had  incurred,  and  at  the  refusal  to  acknowledge  them  in  1841. 
One  lawyer,  a  member  of  the  Legislature,  declared  his  conviction 
that  the  repudiation  of  the  state  debt  would  not  have  been  carried 
in  his  county,  but  for  the  facility  afforded  by  secret  voting.  The 
same  individuals,  he  said,  who  openly  professed  a  more  honorable 
line  of  conduct,  must,  out  of  selfishness,  have  taken  advantage  of 
the  ballot-box  to  evade  an  increase  of  taxation,  otherwise  there 
could  riot  have  been  a  majority  in  favor  of  disowning  their  liabil 
ities.  This  wras  one  of  the  few  instances  in  which  I  heard  the 
ballot  condemned  in  the  United  States  ;  yet  the  position  of  the 
laboring  and  middle  classes  is,  comparatively,  so  independent 
here,  in  relation  to  their  rich  employers,  that  the  chief  arguments 
relied  upon  in  England  in  favor  of  secret  voting,  would  seem  to 
be  inapplicable. 

The  dependence  of  the  judges,  for  their  election,  on  the  popular 
suffrage,  appears  to  have  been  carried  farther  in  Mississippi  than 
in  any  other  state.  I  was  told  that  rival  candidates  for  the  bench 
and  chancellorship,  have  been  known  to  canvass  for  votes  in 
taverns,  and  have  been  asked  what  construction  they  put  on 
certain  statutes  relating  to  banks  chartered  by  the  state,  just  as, 
in  an  ordinary  election  for  representatives,  men  are  asked  what 


CHAP.  XXXII.]  VICKSBURG  TO  MEMPHIS.  163 

are  their  opinions,  and  how  they  would  vote  on  certain  questions. 
I  met  with  more  men  of  property  in  Mississippi  who  spoke  as  if 
they  belonged  to  an  oppressed  class,  governed  by  a  rude,  ignorant, 
and  coarse  democracy,  than  in  any  other  part  of  my  tour.  "Many 
of  our  poorest  citizens,"  they  said,  "  would  freely  admit,  that  nothing 
is  so  difficult,  for  the  individual,  as  self-government,  and  yet  hold 
that  nothing  is  so  easy  and  safe  as  self-government  for  the  million, 
even  where  education  has  been  carried  no  farther  than  here,  where 
there  are  still  seven  counties  without  a  single  school-house,  and 
large  districts  where  the  inhabitants  have  but  recently  been  con 
verted  to  Christianity  by  itinerant  Methodists.  They  forgot  that 
even  honorable  and  enlightened  men  will  sometimes  do,  in  their 
corporate  capacity,  what  each  individual  would  be  ashamed  to  do 
if  he  acted  singly."  When  I  heard  these  remarks,  and  reflected 
that  even  in  those  parts  of  the  state  where  the  whites  are  most 
advanced,  as  in  Adams  County,  more  than  half  the  population 
are  slaves,  I  felt  more  surprise  that  English  capitalists  had  lent 
so  much  money  to  Mississippi,  than  that  they  had  repented  of  it. 
At  the  same  time  there  is  more  hope  for  the  future,  for  education 
must  come. 

The  town  of  Vicksburg  is  beautifully  situated  on  the  slope  of 
a  wooded  bluff,  about  180  feet  high,  and  walks  might  be  made, 
commanding  the  river,  which  would  be  delightful.  At  present 
no  one  can  roam  along  the  paths  in  the  suburbs,  as  they  are  dis 
gracefully  filthy.  * 

We  took  our  passage  in  the  Andrew  Jackson  steamer,  from 
Vicksburg  to  Memphis,  a  distance  of  390  miles,  and  paid  only 
six  dollars  each  (25  shillings),  board  and  lodging  included.  The 
monotony  of  the  scenery  on  the  great  river  for  several  hundred 
miles  together,  is  such  as  to  grow  wearisome.  Scarcely  any  ves 
sels  with  sails  are  seen,  all  the  old  schooners  and  smaller  craft 
having  been  superseded  by  the  great  steam-ships.  The  traveler 
becomes  tired  of  always  seeing  a  caving  bank  on  one  side,  and 
an  advancing  sand-bar,  covered  with  willows  and  poplars,  on  the 

*  For  observations  on  the  Geology  of  Jackson  and  Vicksburg,  see  a  paper 
by  the  Author,  Journ.  of  Geol.  Soc.  London,  vol.  iv.  p.  15,  1847,  and  Silli- 
man's  Journal,  Second  Series,  vol.  iv.  p.  186,  Sept.  1847. 


1G4  MONOTONY  OF  SCENERY.  [CHAP.  XXXII. 

other  ;  the  successive  growths  of  young  trees  rising  to  greater 
heights,  one  tier  above  another,  as  before  described,  below  New 
Orleans.  The  water,  at  this  season,  is  too  turbid  to  reflect  the 
sky  or  the  trees  on  its  bank.  The  aspect  of  things,  day  after 
day,  is  so  exactly  similar,  that  it  might  seem  as  necessary  to  take 
astronomical  observations,  in  order  to  discover  what  progress  one 
lias  made,  as  if  the  voyage  were  in  mid-Atlantic.  That  our 
course  is  northward,  is  indicated  by  the  willows  on  the  banks 
growing  less  green,  and  a  diminishing  quantity  of  gray  moss 
hanging  from  the  trees.  The  red  maple  has  also  disappeared. 
When  I  landed  at  wooding  stations,  I  saw,  on  the  damp  ground 
beneath  the  trees,  abundance  of  mosses,  with  scarcely  a  blade  of 
grass,  while  the  only  wild  flowers  w^ere  a  few  violets  and  a  white 
bramble.  The  young  leaves  of  the  poplars  are  most  fragrant  in 
the  night  air.  We  were  now  in  latitude  34°  north,  passing  the 
mouths  of  the  Arkansas  and  White  rivers. 

The  village  of  Napoleon,  212  miles  above  Vicksburg,  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Arkansas,  had  suffered  much  by  the  floods  of  ]  844. 
Its  red,  muddy  waters  are  hardly  mixed  up  thoroughly  with  the 
Mississippi  till  they  reach  Vicksburg.  They  often  bring  down 
much  ice  into  the  Mississippi.  The  White  River  is  said  to  be 
navigable  for  about  six  hundred  miles  above  its  mouth. 

Our  steamer,  the  Andrew  Jackson,  bound  for  Cincinnati,  car 
rying  a  heavy  cargo  of  molasses,  was  eight  feet  deep  in  the 
water.  To  avoid  the  drift  wood,  which  impeded  her  progress, 
the  captain,  on  arriving  at  Island  Eighty-four  (for  they  are  all 
numbered,  beginning  from  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio),  determined  to 
take  a  short  cut  between  that  island,  and  the  left  river  bank. 
The  lead  was  heaved,  and  the  decreasing  depth,  from  ten  feet  to 
eight  and  a  half,  was  called  out ;  our  vessel  then  grazed  the  bot 
tom  for  a  moment,  but  fortunately  got  off  again.  There  wras  so 
much  sameness  in  the  navigation,  that  such  an  incident  was 
quite  a  relief.  Soon  afterward,  March  23d,  some  variety  was 
afforded  by  a  squall  of  wind,  accompanied  by  lightning.  I  never 
expected  to  see  waves  of  such  magnitude,  and  was  surprised  to 
learn,  that  in  some  reaches,  where  the  water  extends  ten  miles 
in  a  straight  line,  a  strong  wind  blowing  against  the  current  will 


CHA.P.  XXXII.]  ACTORS  ON  BOARD.  165 

cause  large  steamers  to  pitch  so  as  to  make  many  passengers  sea 
sick  ;  but  this  rarely  happens.  In  the  night  we  had  often  to 
draw  up  to  the  bank,  wherever  a  signal-fire  was  lighted,  finding 
sometimes  a  single  passenger  waiting  to  be  taken  on  board. 

There  were  many  actors  on  board,  and,  among  others,  a 
pleasing  young  woman,  who  turned  out  to  be  the  manager's 
wife,  returning  with  her  family  of  young  children  and  sick  hus 
band  from  Vicksburg,  where  she  complained  that  the  drama  was 
at  a  low  ebb,  and  where,  as  in  many  other  cities  in  the  south,  the 
drunken  habits  of  the  inferior  actors  made  the  profession  by  no 
means  a  pleasant  one  for  a  woman.  She  was  longing  for  an 
engagement  in  some  "  eastern  theater,"  where,  she  told  rny  wife, 
she  would  willingly  take  less  pay,  and  would  not  object  to  under 
take  the  part  of  "  first  old  woman"  for  eighteen  dollars  a  week, 
as  most  of  the  actresses,  being  desirous  of  looking  young  and  pretty, 
compete  eagerly  for  the  character  of  "  first  juvenile."  She  liked 
much  to  act  chambermaid,  as  then  she  was  not  expected  to  learn 
her  part  so  accurately.  She  had  a  real  feeling  of  enthusiasm  for 
her  art,  and  great  admiration  for  Mrs.  Kean,  and  spoke  with 
satisfaction  of  having  once  acted  second  to  her  when  she  was 
Miss  Ellen  Tree.  During  her  husband's  illness  at  Vicksburg, 
she  had  been  obliged  to  take  the  management  of  the  theater 
herself,  and  had  good  reason  to  lament  that  the  temperance  move 
ment  had  not  reached  so  far  west.  The  physician,  after  attend 
ing  his  patient  for  many  weeks  in  a  fever,  remitted  to  them  a 
bill  of  fifty  dollars,  one  only  of  many  similar  acts  of  generosity  in 
the  members  of  this  profession  which  came  to  my  knowledge  in 
the  course  of  my  tour.  This  actress  had  with  her  a  young 
maid,  fairer  than  many  an  English  brunette,  but  who,  though  a 
free  woman,  did  not  happen  to  belong  to  the  white  aristocracy. 
The  stewardess  came  into  the  cabin  and  summoned  her  to  dinner, 
and  she,  doing  as  she  was  bid,  sat  down  at  the  second  table, 
where  the  officers  of  the  ship  and  the  white  children  were  dining. 
When  her  repast  was  half  finished,  her  master  and  mistress  sud 
denly  discovered  the  prodigious  breach  of  decorum  which  their 
attendant  was  perpetrating,  and,  calling  her  away  from  the  table, 
began  explaining  to  one  lady  after  another,  especially  those  with 


ItiG  MANNERS  IN  THE  BACKWOODS.      [CHAP,  XXXII. 

whose  children  she  had  been  sitting,  that  she  was  really  a  good 
girl,  who  knew  no  better.  The  stewardess  also,  knowing  she 
should  incur  blame,  came  and  apologized  for  her  mistake,  ob 
serving  that  the  girl  was  quite  undistinguishable  by  her  com 
plexion  from  a  white.  There  was  a  quadroon  lady  on  board, 
of  very  respectable  appearance  and  manners,  who  w^as  taking  all 
her  meals  in  her  own  state-room,  thus  avoiding  the  risk  of  meet 
ing  with  similar  indignities.  It  is  not  surprising,  in  such  a  state 
of  society,  that  they  who  belong  to  the  degraded  race,  should 
make  every  effort  to  conceal  the  fact ;  or,  if  that  be  impossible, 
to  assimilate  themselves,  as  far  as  they  can.  to  individuals  of  the 
dominant  race.  In  proportion  to  the  mixture  of  white  blood,  the 
woolly,  short  hair  of  the  negro  lengthens  and  straightens,  and  the 
ambition  of  the  black  women  is  to  contend  with  nature  in  tortur 
ing  their  hair,  by  combing  and  plaiting,  till  it  resembles,  as  near 
as  possible,  the  flowing  locks  of  the  whites. 

At  one  of  the  wooding  stations,  a  countryman  came  on  board  with 
his  wife,  a  half-breed  Indian.  She  had  straight  black  hair,  and  a 
soft,  mild  eye.  She  sat  at  table  with  us,  taking  her  place  on  terms 
of  perfect  equality,  no  distinction  of  caste  being  made  in  this  case. 

As  I  was  pacing  the  deck,  one  passenger  after  another  eyed 
my  short-sight  glass,  suspended  by  a  ribbon  round  my  neck,  with 
much  curiosity.  Some  of  them  asked  me  to  read  for  them  the 
name  inscribed  on  the  stern  of  a  steamer  so  far  off  that  I  doubted 
whether  a  good  telescope  would  have  enabled  me  to  do  more  than 
discern  the  exact  place  where  the  name  was  written.  Others, 
abruptly  seizing  the  glass,  without  leave  or  apology,  brought  their 
heads  into  close  contact  with  mine,  and,  looking  through  it,  ex 
claimed,  in  a  disappointed  and  half  reproachful  tone,  that  they 
could  see  nothing.  Meanwhile,  the  wives  and  daughters  of  pas 
sengers  of  the  same  class,  were  sitting  idle  in  the  ladies'  cabin, 
occasionally  taking  my  wife's  embroidery  out  of  her  hand,  without 
asking  leave,  and  examining  it,  with  many  comments,  usually, 
however,  in  a  complimentary  strain.  To  one  who  is  studying 
the  geology  of  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  the  society  of  such 
companions  may  be  endurable  for  a  few  weeks.  He  ought  to 
recollect  that  they  form  the  great  majority  of  those  who  support 


CHAI».  XXXII.]  INQUISITIVENESS.  167 

these  noble  steamers,  without  which  such  researches  could  not 
be  pursued  except  by  an.  indefinite  sacrifice  of  time.  But  \vo 
sometimes  doubted  how  far  an  English  party,  traveling1  for  mere 
amusement,  would  enjoy  themselves.  If  they  venture  on  tho 
experiment,  they  had  better  not  take  with  them  an  English 
maid-servant,  unless  they  are  prepared  for  her  being  transformed 
into  an  equal.  It  would  be  safer  to  engage  some  one  of  that  too 
numerous  class,  commonly  called  "humble  companions/'  who 
might  occasionally  enter  into  society  with  them.  Ladies  who 
can  dispense  with  such  assistance,  will  find  the  maids  in  the  inns, 
whether  white  or  colored,  most  attentive. 

We  were  not  asked  more  questions  in  regard  to  our  private 
affairs  than  we  had  often  been  accustomed  to  submit  to  when 
traveling  in  France  and  Scotland.  Nor  had  I  any  reason  to 
complain ;  for  when  I  had  satisfied  the  curious  as  to  my  age,  the 
number  of  my  children,  how  we  liked  the  country,  and  many  other 
particulars,  often  asked  very  abruptly  by  one  just  come  on  board,  I 
had  no  ceremony  in  retaliating  on  him,  and  putting  to  him  as  many 
queries  in  my  turn.  Every  one  must  admit  that  the  answers  you 
commonly  receive  are  most  intelligent.  Americans  of  the  higher 
classes  seemed  more  put  out  than  we  were,  when  thus  catechised.' 

One  of  them,  before  we  left  Boston,  as  if  determined  that 
nothing  should  surprise  me,  related  many  diverting  anecdotes  to 
illustrate  the  inquisitive  turn  of  his  countrymen.  Among  other 
stories  he  gave  a  lively  description  of  a  New  Englander  who  was 
seated  by  a  reserved  companion  in  a  railway  car,  and  who,  by 
way  of  beginning  a  conversation,  said,  "  Are  you  a  bachelor  ?" 
To  which  the  other  replied,  drily,  "  No,  I'm  not." — "You  are  a 
married  man  ?"  continued  he. — "  No,  I'm  not." — "  Then  you 
must  be  a  widower?" — "No,  I'm  not."  Here  there  was  a  short 
pause ;  but  the  undaunted  querist  returned  to  the  charge,  observ 
ing,  "  If  your  are  neither  a  bachelor,  nor  a  married  man,  nor  a 
widower,  what  in  the  world  can  you  be?" — "  If  you  must  know," 
said  the  other,  "  I'm  a  divorced  man  !" 

Another  story,  told  me  by  the  same  friend,  was  that  a  gentle 
man  being  asked,  in  a  stage  coach,  how  he  had  lost  his  leg,  made 
his  fellow  travelers  promise  that  if  he  told  them  they  would  put 


SPOILT  CHILDREN.  [CHAP.  XXXII. 


no  more  questions  on  the  subject.  He  then  said,  "  It  was  bitten 
off."  To  have  thus  precluded  them  for  the  rest  of  a  long  jour 
ney  from  asking  how  it  was  bitten  off,  was  a  truly  ingenious 
method  of  putting  impertinent  curiosity  on  the  rack. 

ftVhen  my  wife  first  entered  the  ladies'  cabin,  she  found  every 
one  of  the  numerous  rocking-chairs  filled  with  a  mother  suckling 
an  infant.  As  none  of  them  had  nurses  or  servants,  all  their  other 
children  were  at  large,  and  might  have  been  a  great  resource  to 
passengers  suflering  from  ennui,  had  they  been  under  tolerable 
control.  As  it  was,  they  were  so  riotous  and  undisciplined,  as  to 
be  the  torment  of  all  who  approached  them.  "  How  fortunate 
you  are,"  said  one  of  the  mothers  to  my  wrife,  "  to  be  without 
children  ;  they  are  so  ungovernable,  and,  if  you  switch  them,  they 
sulk,  or  go  into  hysterics."  The  threat  of  "  I'll  switch  you,"  is 
forever  vociferated  in  an  angry  tone,  but  never  carried  into  execu 
tion.  One  genteel  and  pleasing  young  lady  sat  down  by  my  wife, 
and  began  conversation  by  saying,  £;  You  hate  children,  don't  you  ?" 
intimating  that  such  were  her  own  feelings.  A  medical  man,  in. 
large  practice,  in  one  of  the  southern  states,  told  us  he  often  lost 
young  patients  in  fevers,  and  other  cases  where  excitement  of  the 
nerves  was  dangerous,  by  the  habitual  inability  of  the  parents  to 
exert  the  least  command  over  their  children.  We  saw  an  instance 
where  a  young  girl,  in  considerable  danger,  threw  the  medicine  into 
the  physician's  face,  and  heaped  most  abusive  epithets  upon  him. 
The  Director  of  the  State  Penitentiary,  in  Georgia,  told  me, 
that  he  had  been  at  some  pains  to  trace  out  the  history  of  the 
most  desperate  characters  under  his  charge,  and  found  that  they 
had  been  invariably  spoilt  children ;  and,  he  added,  if  young 
Americans  were  not  called  upon  to  act  for  themselves  at  so  early 
an  age,  and  undergo  the  rubs  and  discipline  of  the  world,  they 
would  be  more  vicious  arid  immoral  than  the  people  of  any  other 
nation.  Yet  there  is  no  country  where  children  ought  to  be  so 
great  a  blessing,  or  where  they  can  be  so  easily  provided  for. 
Parents  have  not  the  excuse  of  Mrs.  MacClarty,  in  the  "  Cottag 
ers  of  Glenburnie,"  when  she  exclaims,  "  If  I  don't  give  the  boy 
his  own  way,  what  else  have  I  to  give  him  ?"  but  it  is  probably 
because  so  many  of  these  western  settlers  have  risen  recently  from 


CHAP.  XXXil.l  EQUALITY  AND  LEVELING.  169 


Mrs.  MacClarty's  grade  in  society,  that  they  have  retained  her 
maxims  for  the  management  of  their  children  ;  for  the  young 
people  in  the  families  of  the  best  class  of  society  in  the  United 
States,  are  often  kept  in  as  good  order,  and  are  as  engaging  in 
their  manners,  as  they  are  in  any  part  of  Europe. 

Many  young  Americans  have  been  sent  to  school  in  Switzer 
land,  and  I  have  heard  their  teachers,  who  found  them  less 
manageable  than  English  or  Swiss  boys,  maintain  that  they 
must  all  of  them  have  some  dash  of  wild  Indian  blood  in  their 
veins.  Englishmen,  on  the  other  hand,  sometimes  attribute  the 
same  character  to  republican  institutions  ;  but,  in  fact,  they  are 
spoilt  long  before  they  are  old  enough  to  know  that  they  are  not 
born  under  an  absolute  monarchy. 

Some  officers  of  the  army,  who  had  been  educated  at  West 
Point,  a  lieutenant  in  the  navy,  and  a  judge,  with  his  family, 
from  a  southern  state,  were  agreeable  companions  on  this  voyage, 
and  differed  as  much  in  manners  from  the  majority  of  our  mess 
mates,  as  persons  of  the  same  rank  in  Europe  would  have  done. 
There  seemed,  to  us,  to  be  a  great  want,  in  such  steamers,  of  a 
second  cabin,  at  a  price  intermediate  between  that  of  the  first 
cabin  and  the  deck.  A  poor  emigrant,  who  waB  roughing  it  in 
the  latter  place,  remarked  to  me  truly,  that  they  were  treated 
there  like  dogs,  and  had  nothing  but  a  plank  to  sleep  upon.  He 
was  paying  highly  for  his  wife  and  family,  who  had  places  in 
the  first  cabin.  Among  all  who  have  paid  for  these,  a  recogni 
tion  of  perfect  equality  is  scrupulously  exacted.  Not  only  would 
a  man  of  rank  and  ancient  family,  but  one  of  the  most  refined 
manners,  and  superior  knowledge  and  education,  find  himself 
treated  as  entitled  to  no  more  deference  or  respect  than  the  rud 
est  traveler.  Plato's  definition  of  a  man,  "  bipes  implume,"  "a 
featherless  biped,"  would  be  most  appropriate  to  one  who  was 
journeying  in  such  company.  To  a  certain  extent,  however,  the 
manners  of  the  ruder  members  of  this  society  are  improved  by 
such  intercourse,  and  there  is  some  leveling  up  as  well  as  level 
ing  down.  The  European  traveler  must  also  bear  in  mind,  that 
it  would  be  no  discredit  to  those  who  are  settling  in  this  wilder 
ness — especially  when  Europe  pours  into  it,  annually,  her  hun- 

VOL.    I!. II 


170  ENGLISH  NEWSPAPERS.  [CHAP.  XXXII. 

dreds  of  thousands  of  ignorant  and  disappointed  emigrants — if 
the  accommodation  was  of  the  rudest  kind  ;  if  there  were  no 
steamers  in  whose  machinery  the  latest  improvements  had  been, 
adopted,  many  of  them  invented  in  the  United  States  ;  and  if 
the  cabin  was  not  provided  with  good  libraries,  or  the  table  cov 
ered  with  newspapers,  literary  magazines,  and  reviews.  It  is 
precisely  because  there  is  so  much  civilization  in  the  western 
states,  that  foreigners  criticise  them  unfairly,  contrasting  their 
condition  with  the  highest  standard  of  older  countries. 

The  authority  of  the  captain  is  absolute,  and  he  does  not  hesi 
tate,  if  any  unruly  spirit  is  refractory,  and  refuses  to  conform  to 
the  regulations  of  the  ship,  to  put  him  ashore  at  the  nearest 
place  on  the  bank  where  he  can  be  landed  ;  but  I  never  hap 
pened  to  see  so  strong  a  measure  resorted  to. 

The  newspapers  on  the  cabin  table  of  the  Andrew  Jackson 
had  a  column  headed  in  capitals,  "  Five  Weeks  later  from  Eu 
rope."  The  mail  packet  had  been  detained  by  adverse  winds 
longer  than  usual,  and  the  uneasiness  respecting  the  chances  of  a 
war  with  England,  still  the  subject  of  debate  in  Congress,  had 
risen  to  a  great  height.  Many  lovers  of  peace  had  misgiving's 
lest  the  English  democracy,  growing  at  last  impatient,  should 
express  themselves  with  violence,  and  excite  the  war  party  here. 
The  first  glance  at  the  news  relieved  them  from  anxiety,  for  the 
English  were  entirely  absorbed  with  Free  Trade,  Cheap  Bread, 
and  the  admission  of  foreign  grain  without  duty.  The  Cabinet 
were  too  well  satisfied  that  the  people's  attention  was  drawn  off 
from  foreign  affairs  to  obtrude  the  American  question  unneces 
sarily  on  their  attention.  One  of  the  politicians  on  board,  who 
had  been  reading  an  account  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Anti-Corn- 
Law  League,  and  the  parliamentary  debates  on  the  Corn  Duties, 
confessed  to  me,  that  the  omission  of  all  allusion  to  America — 
the  English  being  so  entirely  occupied  with  their  domestic  affairs 
— Avounded  his  feelings,  "Here  we  have  been  talking,"  he  said, 
"for  three  months  about  nothing  else  but  Oregon,  imagining  that 
the  whole  world  was  looking  on  in  suspense,  at  this  momentous 
debate,  and  even  in  Great  Britain  it  has  been  forgotten  for  five 
entire  weeks  !  What  an  absurd  figure  we  are  cutting  !" 


CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

Bluffs  at  Memphis. — New  Madrid. — No  Inn. — Undermining  of  River  Bank. 
— Examination  of  Country  shaken  by  Earthquake  of  1811-12. — Effects 
of  Passage  of  Waves  through  Alluvial  Soil. — Circular  Cavities  or  Sand- 
Bursts. — Open  Fissures. — Lake  Eulalie  drained  by  Shocks. — Borders  of 
Sunk  Country,  west  of  New  Madrid. — Dead  Trees  standing  erect. — A 
slight  Shock  felt. — Trade  in  Peltries  increased  by  Earthquake. — Trees 
erect  in  new-formed  Lakes. — Indian  Tradition  of  Shocks. — Dreary  Forest 
Scene. — Rough  Quarters. — Slavery  in  Missouri. 

March  24,  1816. — AT  length  we  reached  Memphis,  in  the 
State  of  Tennessee.  The  town  on  which  this  ancient  and  vener 
able  name  is  conferred,  appears  the  newest  of  the  large  places 
we  have  yet  seen  on  the  Mississippi.  It  is  growing  with  great 
rapidity,  standing  on  a  bluff  now  fifty-two  feet  above  the  level 
of  the  water  when  the  river  is  high.  The  cliff  is  the  abrupt 
termination  of  deposits  similar  to  those  of  fresh-water  origin,  which 
I  have  before  alluded  to  at  Natchez  and  Vicksburg.  A  mass  of 
yellow  loarn,  forty  feet  thick,  reposes  on  sand  with  quartz  pebbles, 
which  rests  on  clay,  not  visible  at  the  time  of  my  visit.  Such  a 
site  for  a  town,  in  spite  of  the  slow  undermining  of  the  cliffs,  is 
permanent  by  comparison  with  the  ordinary  banks  of  the  river 
for  hundreds  of  miles  continuously  ;  for,  as  a  general  rule,  the 
stream  in  the  alluvial  plain  is  either  encroaching  a  foot  or  more 
annually,  so  as  to  wash  away  buildings,  if  there  be  any  on  the 
bank,  or  is  retreating,  so  that  a  port  soon  becomes  an  inland 
town.  The  people  of  Memphis  are  ambitious  that  their  city 
should  be  a  great  naval  arsenal,  and  there  are  considerable  naval 
stores  here  ;  but  as  frigates  require  from  eighteen  to  twenty- 
three  feet  water,  and  men-of-war  thirty  feet,  while  the  bar  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  affords  at  present  no  more  than  six 
teen  feet  water,  their  hopes  can  riot  be  realized  till  a  ship  canal 
is  made  from  some  point  on  the  Mississippi  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 
After  we  left  Memphis,  we  were  shown,  on  the  Tennessee 


172  MEW  MADRID.  [CHAP.  XXXIIL 


bank  of  the  river,  a  log  cabin,  where  they  said  General  Jackson 
began  his  career  ;  one  of  his  claims  to  popularity  with  the  demo 
cratic  party  consisting  in  his  having  risen  from  a  very  humble 
origin.  The  advantages  of  a  more  liberal  education,  which  a 
rival  might  have  possessed  who  had  begun  life  in  easier  circum 
stances,  would  not  have  countervailed,  in  the  present  stage  of 
progress  of  the  Union,  the  prestige  which  attaches  to  the  idea  of 
a  man's  having  made  his  way  by  his  own  merits. 

JMarcli  25. — From  Memphis  we  sailed  in  a  smaller  steamer 
for  170  miles,  first  between  the  states  of  Tennessee  and  Arkan 
sas,  and  then  between  Tennessee  and  Missouri,  and  arrived  very 
late  at  night  at  New  Madrid,  a  small  village  on  the  western 
bank  of  the  river,  where  I  intended  to  stay  and  make  geological 
observations  on  the  region  shaken  by  the  great  earthquake  of 
181 1—12.  So  many  of  our  American  friends  had  tried  to  dissuade 
us  from  sojourning  in  so  rude  a  place,  that  we  were  prepared  for 
the  worst.  In  the  wharf-boat,  at  least,  I  expected  to  find  a  bed 
for  the  first  night,  and  proposed  to  seek  accommodation  elsewhere 
the  next  day  ;  but,  to  my  dismay,  the  keeper  of  this  floating 
tavern  told  me,  when  I  landed,  that  he  had  just  come  there,  had 
nothing  as  yet  "  fixed,"  and  could  not  receive  us.  I  also  learnt 
that  the  only  inn  in  New  Madrid  had  been  given  up  for  want 
of  custom.  Leaving,  therefore,  my  wife  sitting  by  the  stove  in 
the  wharf-boat,  and  taking  a  negro  as  my  guide,  I  began  to  pace 
the  dark  and  silent  streets.  First  I  applied  in  vain  for  admit 
tance  at  the  old  tavern,  then  to  a  storekeeper  in  the  neighbor 
hood,  who  informed  me  that  a  German  baker,  near  the  river, 
sometim.es  took  in  lodgers.  I  next  roused  this  man  and  his  wife 
from  their  slumbers  ;  their  only  spare  room  was  occupied,  but 
they  asked  their  lodger  if  he  would  give  it  up  to  us.  No  sum 
of  money  would  have  bribed  him  to  comply,  as  I  was  satisfied 
when  I  knew  him  better,  but  his  good  nature  led  him  at  once  to 
assent  cheerfully.  We  were  soon  shown  into  the  apartment,  a 
kind  of  scullery,  with  a  mattress  on  the  floor,  on  which  we  slept, 
and  did  not  make  our  appearance  next  morning  till  half-past 
eight  o'clock.  We  then  apologized,  fearing  we  had  kept  them 
waiting  for  breakfast.  They  said,  good  humoredly,  they  had 


CHAP.  XXXIII.]    UNDERMINING  OF  RIVER-BANK.  173 

indeed  waited  from  six  o'clock,  and  it  was  now  near  their  dinner 
time  !  The  young  German,  originally  from  near  Strasburg,  a 
man  of  simple  manners,  regarded  himself  as  belonging  to  a  differ 
ent  station  in  society,  and  would  have  acted  as  waiter  till  we 
had  finished  our  repast,  had  not  his  wife,  a  native-born  American, 
from  the  State  of  Indiana,  insisted  on  his  sitting  down  to  table. 
They  were  so  poor,  that  they  had  no  servants,  not  even  a  negro 
boy  or  girl,  and  two  children  to  look  after.  The  fare  was  of  the 
humblest  kind,  bread  of  Indian  corn,  bacon,  and  thick  coffee. 
Some  of  the  indispensable  articles  of  the  breakfast  table  equipage 
had  been  purchased,  as  we  afterward  discovered,  expressly  for 
our  use  that  morning.  The  lodger,  "  Uncle  John,"  was  an  old 
bachelor  in  easy  circumstances,  fond  of  fishing,  who  had  come 
here  to  indulge  in  that  sport.  He  was  an  old  pilot,  who  had 
visited  half  the  ports  in  the  Mediterranean,  as  well  as  Great 
Britain,  and  was  quite  a  character.  He  could  tell  many  a  good 
story  of  his  adventures,  and,  like  many  natives  of  Louisiana, 
could  bear  to  be  contradicted  on  any  point  rather  than  hear  the 
healthiness  of  New  Orleans  called  in  question.  His  manners, 
and  those  of  our  host  and  hostess  toward  each  other  and  to  us, 
were  very  polite,  and  never  approached  undue  familiarity.  Uncle 
John  assured  me  that  the  Mississippi  is  now  flowing  where  New 
Madrid  stood  in  1811,  and  that  the  old  grave-yard  has  traveled 
over  from  the  State  of  Missouri  into  Kentucky.  How  this  had 
happened,  it  was  easy  for  me  to  divine  when  I  went  out  after 
breakfast  to  look  at  the  place  by  daylight. 

The  river  bank  is  now  about  twenty -five  feet  high,  and  would 
be  forty-five  feet  at  the  lowest  water  level.  It  is  giving  way  rapid 
ly,  three  houses  having  fallen  in  during  the  last  week,  and  some 
proprietors  are  in  the  act  of  shifting  their  quarters  half  a  mile 
inland.  At  the  bottom  of  the  wasting  bank,  there  is  a  semi-fluid 
quick-sand,  which  greatly  accelerates  the  process  of  destruction. 
Yesterday,  the  ruins  of  a  house,  with  the  wooden  fence  of  a  gar 
den,  were  precipitated  into  the  river,  and  some  of  the  wreck  has 
formed  a  talus,  up  which  I  saw  some  hogs,  after  several  unsuc 
cessful  attempts,  clamber  at  last  into  a  garden,  where  they  began 
to  uproot  the  flowers.  The  steamboats,  which  are  now  sailing 


174  EARTHQUAKE  OF  1811-12.  [CHAP.  XXXITI. 

close  to  the  bank,  will,  in  a  few  years,  pass  freely  over  the  site  of  the 
humble  mansion  where  we  had  been  sleeping ;  and  the  geographer, 
in  constructing  a  map  half  a  century  hence,  may  have  to  transfer  to 
the  State  of  Kentucky,  the  spot  where  I  saw  a  garden  flourish. 

I  examined  the  perpendicular  face  of  the  bank  with  some 
interest,  as  exemplifying  the  kind  of  deposits  which  the  Missis 
sippi  throws  down  near  its  margin.  They  differ  in  no  way 
from  accumulations  of  sand  and  loam  of  high  antiquity  with 
which  the  geologist  is  familiar  ;  some  beds  are  made  up  of  hori 
zontal  layers,  in  others  they  are  slanting,  or  in  what  is  called 
cross  stratification.  Some  are  white,  others  yellow,  and  here 
and  there  a  seam  of  black  carbonaceous  matter,  derived  apparent 
ly  from  the  destruction  of  older  strata,  is  conspicuous. 

I  next  set  out  on  an  excursion  to  examine  those  districts, 
where  I  heard  that  some  superficial  effects  of  the  great  earth 
quake  of  1811  were  still  visible.  The  reader  should  be  remind 
ed  that  this  convulsion  occurred  contemporaneously  with  one  of 
the  most  fatal  earthquakes  of  South  America,  when  the  towns 
of  Guayra  and  Caraccas  were  laid  in  ruins.  The  shocks  were 
also  felt  in  South  Carolina.  Humboldt  has  remarked  that  the 
shocks  of  New  Madrid  are  the  only  examples  on  record,  of  the 
ground  having  quaked  almost  incessantly  for  three  months,  at  a 
point  so  far  remote  from  any  active  volcano.  The  shocks  were 
most  violent  in  part  of  the  region  called  the  Little  Prairie,  to 
the  southward  of  New  Madrid,  and  they  extended  as  far  south 
as  the  river  St.  Francis,  and,  northward,  as  far  as  the  mouth  of 
the  Ohio.  Although  the  country  was  thinly  settled,  and  most 
of  the  houses  built  of  logs,  the  loss  of  life  was  considerable. 
From  accounts  published  at  the  time,  it  appears  that  the  grave 
yard  of  New  Madrid  was  precipitated  into  the  Mississippi,  the 
banks  of  which  gave  way  in  many  places,  and  the  ground  swelled 
up  so  that  the  current  of  the  river  flowed  backward  for  a  time, 
carrying  several  flat  boats  northward,  against  the  stream.  In 
various  parts  of  the  region  above  alluded  to  as  having  been  con 
vulsed,  lakes  twenty  miles  and  upward  in  extent  were  formed, 
while  others  which  pre-existed  were  drained.*  Hundreds  of 
*  SiJliman's  Journal,  vol.  xv.  1829. 


CHAP.  XXXIIL]  SAND-BURSTS.  175 


chasms  opened,  and  new  islands  appeared  in  the  Mississippi  and 
its  tributaries.  Flint,  the  geographer,  who  visited  the  country 
seven  years  after  the  event,  says  that,  at  the  time  of  his  visit, 
a  district  west  of  New  Madrid  still  remained  covered  with  water, 
and  that  the  neighboring  forest  presented  a  scene  of  great  con 
fusion — many  trees  standing  inclined  in  every  direction,  and 
others  having  their  trunks  and  branches  broken.  He  also  saw 
hundreds  of  deep  chasms  remaining  in  the  alluvial  soil,  which 
were  produced,  according  to  the  inhabitants,  by  the  bursting  of 
the  earth,  which  rose  in  great  undulations,  and  discharged  vast 
volumes  of  water,  sand,  and  coaly  matter,  thrown  up  as  high  as 
the  tops  of  the  trees.  As  the  shocks  lasted  throughout  a  period 
of  three  months,  the  country  people  remarked  that,  in  given  dis 
tricts,  there  were  certain  prevailing  directions  in  which  these  fis 
sures  opened,  arid  they  accordingly  felled  the  tallest  trees,  making 
them  fall  at  right  angles  to  the  direction  of  the  chasms.  By 
stationing  themselves  on  these,  they  often  escaped  being  swal 
lowed  up  when  the  earth  opened  beneath  them.  Some  of  the 
shocks  were  perpendicular,  while  others,  much  more  desolating, 
were  horizontal,  or  moved  along  like  great  waves. 

Before  I  left  New  Orleans,  Mr.  Bringier,  the  engineer,  related 
to  me  that  he  was  on  horseback  near  New  Madrid,  in  1811, 
when  some  of  the  severest  shocks  were  experienced,  and  that,  as 
the  waves  advanced,  he  saw  the  trees  bend  down,  and  often,  the 
instant  afterward,  when  in  the  act  of  recovering  their  position, 
meet  the  boughs  of  other  trees  similarly  inclined,  so  as  to  become 
interlocked,  being  prevented  from  righting  themselves  again.  The 
transit  of  the  wave  through  the  woods  was  marked  by  the  crash 
ing  noise  of  countless  branches,  first  heard  on  one  side  and  then 
on  the  other.  At  the  same  time  powerful  jets  of  water,  mixed 
with  sand,  mud,  and  bituminous  coaly  shale,  were  cast  up  with 
such  force,  that  both  horse  and  rider  might  have  perished,  had 
the  undulating  ground  happened  to  burst  immediately  beneath 
them.  He  also  told  me  that  circular  cavities,  called  sink-holes, 
were  formed  where  the  principal  fountains  of  mud  and  water 
were  thrown  up. 

Hearing  that  some  of  these  cavities  still  existed  near  the  town, 


176  LAKE  EULALIE.  [CHAP.  XXXIII. 

I  went  to  see  one  of  them,  three  quarters  of  a  mile  to  the  west 
ward.  There  I  found  a  nearly  circular  hollow,  ten  yards  wide, 
and  five  feet  deep,  with  a  smaller  one  near  it,  and  I  observed, 
scattered  about  the  surrounding  level  ground,  fragments  of  black 
bituminous  shale,  with  much  white  sand.  Within  a  distance 
of  a  few  hundred  yards,  were  five  more  of  these  "  sand-bursts," 
or  "  sand-blows,"  as  they  are  sometimes  termed  here,  and,  rather 
more  than  a  mile  farther  west,  near  the  house  of  Mr.  Savors, 
my  guide  pointed  out  to  me  what  he  called  "  the  sink-hole  where 
the  negro  was  drowned."  It  is  a  striking  object,  interrupting 
the  regularity  of  a  flat  plain,  the  .sides  very  steep,  and  twenty- 
eight  feet  deep  from  the  top  to  the  water's  edge.  The  water 
now  standing  in  the  bottom  is  said  to  have  been  originally  very 
deep,  but  has  grown  shallow  by  the  washing  in  of  sand,  and 
the  crumbling  of  the  bank  caused  by  the  feet  of  cattle  coming  to 
drink.  I  was  assured  that  many  wagon  loads  of  matter  were 
cast  up  out  of  this  hollow,  and  the  quantity  must  have  been  con 
siderable  to  account  for  the  void ;  yet  the  pieces  of  lignite,  and  the 
quantity  of  sand  now  heaped  on  the  level  plain  near  its  borders, 
would  not  suffice  to  fill  one-tenth  part  of  the  cavity.  Perhaps  a 
part  of  the  ejected  substance  may  have  been  swallowed  up  again, 
and  the  rest  may  have  been  so  mixed  with  water,  as  to  have 
spread  freely  like  a  fluid  over  the  soil. 

My  attention  was  next  drawn  to  the  bed  of  what  was  once  a 
lake,  called  Eulalie ;  Mr.  W.  Hunter,  the  proprietor  of  the  estate, 
accompanying -me  to  the  spot.  The  bottom,  now  dried  up,  is 
about  300  yards  long,  by  100  yards  in  width,  and  chiefly  com 
posed  of  clay,  covered  with  trees,  the  whole  of  them  less  than 
thirty-four  years  old.  They  consist  of  cotton- wood  (Populus 
angulata),  willows,  the  honey  locust,  and  other  species.  Some 
single  cotton-wood  trees  have  grown  so  fast  as  to  be  near  two 
and  a  half  feet  in  diameter,  and  had  not  my  guide  known  their 
age  accurately,  I  should  have  suspected  their  origin  to  have  been 
prior  to  1811.  All  the  species  on  the  bottom  differ  from  those 
covering  the  surrounding  higher  ground,  which  is  more  elevated 
by  twelve  or  fifteen  feet.  Here  the  hickory,  the  black  and  white 
oak,  the  gum,  and  other  trees,  many  of  them  of  ancient  date,  are 


CHAP.  XXXIII.]     EXCURSION  TO  "SUNK  COUNTRY."  177 

seen  to  flourish.  On  all  sides,  the  ascent  from  the  old  bed  of 
the  lake  to  its  boundary,  is  by  a  steep  slope,  on  ascending  which 
you  reach  a  platform  on  a  level  with  the  top  of  the  bank  of  the 
Mississippi,  which  is  about  a  mile  distant.  Mr.  Hunter  in 
formed  me  that  Lake  Eulalie  was  formerly  filled  with  clear 
water,  and  abounded  in  fish,  until  it  was  suddenly  drained  by 
the  earthquake.  In  the  clayey  bottom,  I  traced  the  course  of 
two  parallel  fissures,  by  which  the  waters  escaped.  They  are 
separated  from  each  other  by  a  distance  of  about  eight  yards, 
and  are  not  yet  entirely  closed.  Near  their  edges,  much  sand 
and  coal  shale  lie  scattered,  which  were  throwrn  out  of  them  when 
they  first  opened. 

In  regard  to  the  origin  of  this  black  bituminous  shale,  so 
abundantly  cast  out  of  chasms  in  this  region,  it  belongs  to  the 
alluvial  formation,  and  is  found,  in  digging  wells,  fifteen  feet 
deep,  or  sometimes  nearer  the  surface.  It  was  probably  drifted 
down  at  a  former  period  by  the  current  of  the  Mississippi,  from 
the  coal-fields  farther  north. 

Having  learned  that  still  more  striking  monuments  of  the 
earthquake  were  to  be  seen  in  the  territory  farther  to  the  west 
ward  of  New  Madrid,  I  endeavored,  but  in  vain,  to  hire  a  horse. 
At  length  a  merchant's  widow  kindly  lent  me  a  steed.  To  pro 
cure  a  guide  was  impossible,  all  hands  being  fully  employed.  I 
therefore  set  out  alone  through  the  forest,  skirting  the  borders  of 
a  swamp  called  the  Bayou  St.  John,  where  I  observed  a  great 
many  fallen  trees,  and  others  dead  and  leafless,  but  standing 
erect.  After  riding  some  miles,  I  found  my  way  to  a  farm,  the 
owner  of  which  had  witnessed  the  earthquake  when  a  child.  He 
described  to  me  the  camping  out  of  the  people  in  the  night  when 
the  first  shocks  occurred,  and  how  some  were  wounded  by  the 
falling  of  chimneys,  and  the  bodies  of  others  drawn  out  of  the 
ruins.  He  confirmed  the  published  statements  of  the  inhabitants 
having  availed  themselves  of  fallen  trees  to  avoid  being  engulfed 
in  open  fissures,  and  I  afterward  heard  that  this  singular  mode 
of  escape  had  been  adopted  in  distant  places,  between  which 
there  had  been  no  communication,  and  that  even  children  threw 
themselves  on  the  felled  trunks.  My  new  acquaintance  then 

H* 


178  SLIGHT  SHOCK  FELT.  [CHAP.  XXXIII. 

took  me  to  see  several  fissures  still  open,  which  had  been  caused 
by  the  undulatory  movement  of  the  ground,  some  of  them  jagged, 
others  even  and  straight.  I  traced  two  of  them  continuously  for 
more  than  half  a  mile,  and  found  that  a  few  were  parallel ;  but, 
on  the  whole,  they  varied  greatly  in  direction,  some  being  ten 
and  others  forty-five  degrees  west  of  north.  I  might  easily  have 
mistaken  them  for  artificial  trenches,  if  my  companion  had  not 
known  them  within  his  recollection  to  have  been  "  as  deep  as 
wells."  Sand  and  black  shale  were  strewed  along  their  edges. 
They  were  most  of  them  from  two  to  four  feet  wide,  and  five  or 
six  feet  deep  ;  but  the  action  of  rains,  frost,  and  occasional  inun 
dations,  and  above  all  the  leaves  of  the  forest  blown  into  them 
every  autumn  in  countless  numbers,  have  done  much  to  fill  them  up. 

Continuing  my  ride,  I  came  to  the  house  and  farm  of  Mr.  Love, 
who  had  long  resided  in  this  district,  and  he  took  me  to  part  of 
the  forest,  on  the  borders  of  what  is  called  the  "  sunk  country," 
where  all  the  trees  of  a  date  prior  to  1811,  although  standing 
erect  and  entire,  are  dead  and  leafless.  They  are  chiefly  oaks 
and  walnuts,  with  trunks  three  or  four  feet  in  diameter,  and  many 
of  them  200  years  old.  They  are  supposed  to  have  been  killed 
by  the  loosening  of  the  roots  during  the  repeated  undulations 
which  passed  through  the  soil  for  three  months  in  succession. 
The  higher  level  plain,  where  these  dead  trees  stand,  terminates 
abruptly  toward  the  Bayou  St.  John,  and  the  sudden  descent 
of  eight  or  ten  feet  throughout  an  area  four  or  five  miles  long, 
and  fifty  or  sixty  broad,  was  caused,  my  informant  assured  me, 
by  the  earthquake.  At  the  lower  level  are  seen  cypresses  and 
cotton- wood,  and  other  trees  which  delight  in  wet  ground,  all 
newer  than  1812.  I  was  told  that  there  are  some  places  where 
the  descent  from  the  upper  level  to  that  of  the  sunk  country  is 
not  less  than  twenty  and  even  thirty  feet.  In  part  of  this  sunk 
ground  I  saw  not  only  dead  oaks  and  hickory  still  erect,  but  aged 
gum-trees  also  and  cypresses  (Cupressus  disticha). 

While  I  was  riding  with  Mr.  Love  he  stopped  his  horse,  and 
asked  me  if  I  did  not  feel  the  shock  of  an  earthquake.  When 
my  attention  was  called  to  it,  I  fancied  I  had  perceived  it,  but 
was  not  sure.  He  said  they  were  frequent,  although  he  had  not 


CHAP.  XXXIII.]  "SUNK  COUNTRY."  179 

felt  one  for  the  last  fortnight.  It  was  now  three  years  since  they 
had  been  seriously  alarmed  by  any  movement.  We  looked  at  our 
watches,  and  when  we  returned  to  the  farm  he  inquired  of  the 
family  if  any  thing  had  happened.  They  said  they  had  felt  a 
shock,  and  heard  a  sound  like  distant  thunder,  at  twenty-five 
minutes  past  eleven  o'clock,  which  agreed  exactly  with  the  time 
when  my  companion  had  felt  the  motion. 

If  the  information  I  obtained  from  several  quarters  be  correct, 
in  regard  to  the  country  permanently  submerged  by  the  earth 
quake  of  1811—12,  the  area  must  exceed  in  magnitude  what 
was  stated  in  former  accounts.  The  "  sunk  country,"  I  am  told, 
extends  along  the  course  of  the  White  Water  and  its  tributaries 
for  a  distance  of  between  seventy  and  eighty  miles  north  and  south, 
and  thirty  miles  east  and  west.  A  trapper,  who  had  been  hunting 
on  the  Little  River,  told  me,  that  large  spaces  there  were  obviously 
under  water,  owing  to  the  great  shake,  because  the  dead  trees  were 
still  standing.  In  the  true  hunter  spirit,  he  regarded  the  awful 
catastrophe  of  1811—12  as  a  blessing  to  the  country,  and  expati- 
ited  with  delight  on  the  vast  area  turned  into  lake  and  marsh, 
id  the  active  trade  carried  on  ever  since  in  the  furs  of  wild  animals, 
j^had  been  the  making  of  New  Madrid,  he  affirmed,  which  would 
)me  a  rival  of  St.  Louis,  and  exported  even  now  at  least  half 
my  peltries.  There  had  been  taken  last  year  50,000  racoon 
skin^and  25,000  musk-rats  for  making  hats  and  caps  ;  12,000 
mink  for  trimming  dresses;  1000  bears  and  1000  otters;  2500 
wild  oats,  40  panthers,  and  100  wolves.  Beavers  there  were 
none,  or  only  five  or  six  had  been  trapped.  He  had  gone  in  his 
canoe,  which  carried  his  hut,  his  gun,  and  his  baggage,  over  the 
whole  sunk  country,  and  described  to  me  the  villages  or  hummocks 
built  in  the  swamps  by  the  musk-rats,  which  he  called  "  French 
settlements,"  a  piece  of  impertinence  in  which  the  Anglo- Americans 
indulge  toward  the  Creoles  of  Louisiana.  He  told  me  that  within 
the  area  of  the  sunk  country  in  Arkansas,  about  eighty  miles  from 
New  Madrid,  is  a  space  called  Buffalo  Island,  containing  about 
twenty-five  square  miles,  where,  two  years  ago  (1844),  a  herd 
of  buffaloes,  300  or  400  strong,  was  surprised,  and  six  of  them 
taken. 


180  TRADITION  OF  EARTHQUAKES.     [CHAP.  XXXIII. 

The  sunk  country  is  not  confined  to  the  region  west  of  the 
Mississippi  ;  for,  on  my  way  up  the  river,  I  learnt  from  Mr. 
Fletcher,  a  farmer,  who  had  a  wooding  station  in  Tennessee,  that 
several  extensive  forest  tracts  in  that  state  were  submerged  during 
the  shocks  of  1811—12.  and  have  ever  since  formed  lakes  arid 
swamps,  among  which  are  those  called  Obion  and  Reelfoot.  He 
had  observed,  in  several  of  these,  that  trees  which  had  been  killed, 
and  had  stood  for  a  long  time  partially  submerged,  had  in  many 
places  rotted  down  to  the  water's  edge.  In  some  swamps  caused 
by  the  earthquake,  they  had  all  decayed  to  within  a  few  inches 
of  the  base  of  the  trunk.  It  is  therefore  evident,  that  should  the 
turbid  waters  of  the  Mississippi  overflow  that  region,  and  deposit 
their  sediment  on  such  stumps,  they  would  present  to  the  geologist 
a  precise  counterpart  of  the  buried  stools  of  trees  with  their  roots 
before  described  as  occurring  at  the  bottom  of  the  b]uff  at  Port 
Hudson.*  Mr.  Fletcher  also  told  me,  that  he  knew  several  fis 
sures  in  Tennessee,  formed  in  1811—12,  where  the  ground  on  one 
side  of  the  rent  remained  higher  by  two  feet  than  that  on  the 
other  side. 

I  was  informed  at  New  Madrid  that  the  Indians,  before 
year  1811,  had  a  tradition  of  a  great  earthquake  which  h 
previously  devastated  this  same  region.  Yet  there  is  so  wide  an 
area  of  forest  without  sink-holes,  or  any  great  inequalities  of  sur 
face,  and  without  dead  trees  like  those  above  alluded  to,  that  wro 
can  not  suppose  any  convulsion  of  equal  magnitude  to  have 
occurred  for  many  centuries  previous  to  1811. 

Having  explored  the  margin  of  the  Great  Prairie,  and  seen 
the  sunk  country  several  miles  west  of  New  Madrid,  I  returned 
by  a  different  path  through  the  woods,  often  losing  my  way,  till 
I  fell  into  the  main  road  for  the  last  six  miles,  which  was  cut 
straight  through  the  forest,  and  was  at  this  season  singularly 
monotonous  and  dreary.  It  was  furrowed  with  long,  deep  ruts, 
cut  in  black  mud.  and  full  of  miry  water.  The  sky  was  cloudy, 
and  the  plain  as  level  as  if  it  had  never  been  disturbed  by  the 
slightest  subterranean  movement  since  it  originated.  The  trees 
were,  for  the  most  part,  leafless,  and  almost  all  of  the  same  height, 
*  Ante,  pp.  137-140. 


CHAP.  XXXIII.]  ROUGH  QUARTERS.  181 

with  no  evergreens  below  them,  and  no  grass  ;  but,  instead  of  it, 
a  somber  brown  covering  of  damp  and  dead  oak  leaves,  strewed 
evenly  over  the  ground.  At  one  point  I  saw  the  rotting  trunks 
of  several  fallen  trees,  and  near  them  an  old  oak,  on  the  boughs 
of  which,  near  the  base,  a  group  of  five  turkey-buzzards  were 
perched,  in  perfect  character  with  the  rest  of  the  scene.  Twilight 
was  coming  on,  and  the  woods  were  silent ;  but,  as  I  approached 
the  river,  the  silence  was  agreeably  broken  by  the  varied  and 
liquid  notes  of  a  mocking-bird,  and,  at  the  same  time,  one  of  the 
large  woodpeckers,  with  its  brilliant  plumage,  flew  over  my  head, 
as  if  to  remind  me  that  at  other  seasons  the  solitude  is  cheered 
by  the  song  and  bright  colors  of  birds,  when  the  leaves  of  the 
trees  unfold  themselves,  and  the  sun's  heat  would  then  be  so  in 
tense,  that  a  traveler  would  gladly  retreat  into  the  shades  of  the 
dense  forest. 

When  I  took  back  my  horse  to  its  owner  in  New  Madrid,  I 
received  a  pressing  invitation  to  exchange  our  present  homely 
quarters  for  her  comfortable  house.  Some  of  the  other  principal 
merchants  made  us  hospitable  offers  of  the  same  kind,  which 
were  exceedingly  tempting.  We  thought  it  right,  however,  to 
decline  them  all,  as  we  might  have  hurt  the  feelings  of  our 
German  host  and  his  wife,  who,  in  their  anxiety  to  accommodate 
us,  had  purchased  several  additional  household  articles.  Among 
these  was  a  table-cloth,  and,  when  I  entered  the  house,  T  was  amused 
at  the  occupations  of  my  wife  and  her  companion.  The  baker's 
lady  had  accepted  the  offer  of  her  guest  to  hem  the  new  table-cloth, 
in  which  task  she  was  busily  engaged  ;  while  the  settler  in  the 
backwoods,  having  discovered  that  my  wife  had  brought  from 
New  Orleans  a  worked  collar  of  the  latest  Parisian  fashion,  had 
asked  leave  to  copy  it,  and  was  intent  on  cutting  out  the  shape, 
thus  qualifying  herself  to  outdo  all  the  "  fashionists"  of  the  sunk 
country. 

A  great  spirit  of  equality  was  observable  in  the  manners  of  the 
whites  toward  each  other  at  New  Madrid,  yet  with  an  absence 
of  all  vulgar  familiarity.  But  what  I  saw  and  heard,  convinced 
me  that  the  condition  of  the  negroes  is  least  enviable  in  such  out- 
of-the-way  and  half  civilized  districts,  where  there  are  many  ad- 


182  SLAVERY  IN  MISSOURI.  [CHAP.  XXXIII. 

venturers,  and  uneducated  settlers,  who  have  little  control  over 
their  passions,  and  who,  when  they  oppress  their  slaves,  are  not 
checked  by  public  opinion,  as  in  more  advanced  communities. 
New  comers  of  a  higher  tone  of  sentiment  are  compelled  some 
times  to  witness  cruelties  which  fill  them  with  indignation, 
heightened  by  the  necessity  of  being  silent,  and  keeping  on  good 
terms  with  persons  of  whose  conduct  they  disapprove.  To  the 
passing  stranger,  they  can  enlarge  on  this  source  of  annoyance, 
and  send  him  away  grieving  that  so  late  as  the  year  1821,  Mis 
souri  should  have  been  added  to  the  Union  as  a  slave  state,  against 
the  wishes  of  a  respectable  minority  of  its  own  inhabitants,  and 
against  the  feeling  of  a  majority  of  the  more  educated  population 
of  the  north. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV. 

Alluvial  Formations  of  the  Mississippi,  ancient  and  modern. — Delta  defined. 
— Great  Extent  of  Wooded  Swamps. — Deposits  of  pure  Vegetable  Mat 
ter. — Floors  of  Blue  Clay  with  Cypress  Roots. — Analogy  to  ancient  Coal- 
measures. — Supposed  "  Epoch  of  existing  Continents." — Depth  of  Fresh 
water  Strata  in  Deltas. — Time  required  to  bring  down  the  Mud  of  the 
Mississippi. — New  Experiments  and  Observations  required. — Great  Age 
of  buried  and  living  Cypress-trees. — Older  and  Newer  Parts  of  Alluvial 
Plain. — Upraised  Terraces  of  Natchez,  &c.,  and  the  Ohio,  the  Monuments 
of  an  older  Alluvial  Formation. — Grand  Oscillation  of  Level. — The  ancient 
Valleys  inhabited  by  Quadrupeds  now  extinct. — Land-shells  not  changed. 
— Probable  Rate  of  Subsidence  and  Upheaval. — Relative  Age  of  the  an 
cient  Alluvium  of  the  Mississippi,  and  the  Northern  Drift. 

BEFORE  leaving  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  I  shall  take  this 
opportunity  to  offer  some  general  remarks  on  the  modern  delta  and 
alluvial  plain  of  the  great  river,  and  on  those  fresh-water  deposits 
before  described  in  the  bluffs  of  Port  Hudson,  Natchez,  Vicksburg, 
and  Memphis,  which  I  regard  as  the  monuments  of  a  more  an 
cient  alluvial  formation,  one  of  high  antiquity,  yet  formed  when 
the  physical  geography  of  the  country  already  bore  a  great  re 
semblance  to  that  now  existing,  and  when,  moreover,  the  land 
and  waters  were  inhabited  by  the  same  species  of  terrestrial, 
fluviatile,  and  lacustrine  mollusca,  which  now  inhabit  this  region, 
although  the  land  quadrupeds  were  almost  entirely  different. 

The  delta  of  the  Mississippi  may  be  defined  as  that  part  of  the 
great  alluvial  slope,  which  lies  below,  or  to  the  south  of  the 
branching  off  of  the  highest  arm,  or  that  called  the  Atchafalaya. 
Above  this  point,  which  is  the  head  of  the  delta,  the  Mississippi 
receives  water  from  its  various  tributaries  ;  below,  it  gives  out 
again,  through  numerous  arms  or  channels,  the  waters  which  it 
conveys  to  the  sea.  The  delta,  so  defined,  is  about  14,000 
square  miles  in  area,  and  elevated  from  a  few  inches  to  ten  feet 
above  the  level  of  the  sea  The  greater  part  of  it  protrudes  into 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  beyond  the  general  coast  line.  The  level 
plain  to  the  north,  as  far  as  Cape  Girardeau,  in  Missouri,  above 


184  DELTA  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI.        [CHAP.  XXXIV. 

the  junction  of  the  Ohio,  is  of  the  same  character,  including, 
according  to  Mr.  Forshey,  an  area  of  about  16,000  square  miles, 
arid  is,  therefore,  larger  than  the  delta.  It  is  very  variable  in 
width  from  east  to  west,  being  near  its  northern  extremity,  or  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Ohio,  50  miles  wide,  at  Memphis  30,  at  the 
mouth  of  the  White  River  80,  and  contracting  again  further 
south,  as  at  Grand  Gulf,  to  33  miles.  The  delta  and  alluvial 
plain  rise  by  so  gradual  a  slope  from  the  sea  as  to  attain  at  the 
junction  of  the  Ohio  (a  distance  of  800  miles  by  the  river)  an 
elevation  of  only  200  feet  above  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 

First,  in  regard  to  the  whole  alluvial  slope,  whether  above  or 
below  the  present  head  of  the  delta,  it  will  appear,  from  what  has 
been  already  said,  that  sand  is  thrown  down  near  the  borders  of 
the  main  river  and  its  tributaries,  arid  fine  mud  at  more  distant 
points.  The  larger  portion,  however,  of  the  whole  area  consists 
of  swamps,  supporting  a  luxuriant  growth  of  timber,  interspersed 
with  lakes,  most  of  which  are  deserted  river  bends.  These  lakes 
are  slowly  filling  up,  and  every  swamp  is  gradually  becoming 
shallower,  the  substances  accumulated  in  them  being,  for  the 
most  part,  of  vegetable  origin,  unmixed  with  earthy  matter.  It 
is  only  on  their  exterior  margins  (except  after  a  sudden  subsidence, 
daring  an  earthquake  like  that  of  1811—12),  that  the  waters  of 
the  Mississippi  throw  down  sediment  in  the  interior  of  any  large 
swamp  or  lake,  for  the  reeds,  canes,  and  brushwood,  through 
which  the  waters  must  first  pass,  cause  them  to  flow  slowly, 
and  to  part  with  all  the  matter  previously  held  in  mechanical 
suspension.  Long  before  they  reach  the  central  parts  of  a  morass 
or  lake,  they  are  well  filtered,  although  still  deeply  stained  by 
vegetable  matter  in  a  state  of  decomposition. 

Over  a  large  portion  of  the  submerged  areas  of  the  great  plain, 
trees  are  seen  growing  every  where  in  the  water.  Into  the  deeper 
water,  where  no  forest  can  grow,  the  trunks  of  trees  are  floated, 
and  many  of  these  sink,  when  water-logged,  to  the  bottom,  which 
is  also  raised  by  an  annual  deposit  of  leaves,  and  of  peaty  matter 
derived  from  decaying  plants,  of  which  there  is  an  exuberant 
growth  round  the  borders  of  every  swamp.  That  the  admixture 
of  inorganic  matter  is  very  small,  has  been  shown  by  the  observ- 


CHAP.  XXXIV.]  FLOORS  OF  BLUE  CLAY.  18! 

ations  of  Messrs.  Dickeson  and  Brown,  who  state,  "  that  wher 
the  woods  are  burning1,  after  an  unusually  dry  season,  pits  ar% 
found  burnt  into  the  ground  as  far  as  the  fire  can  descend  Avithout 
coming  into  contact  with  water,  and  scarcely  any  residuum  or 
earthy  matter  is  left."*  They  also  state  that  at  the  bottom  of 
all  the  cypress  swamps  or  brakes,  there  is  found  a  peculiar  layer 
of  tenacious  blue  clay,  which  forms  the  foundation,  or  floor,  on 
which  the  vegetable  matter  accumulates.  We  may  conclude, 
therefore,  that  as  the  roots  of  the  cypress  penetrate  far  beneath 
the  soil,  and  project  horizontally  far  and  wide,  those  of  one  tree 
interlacing  with  another,  such  root-bearing  beds  of  argillaceous 
loam  must  be  very  analogous  to  what  are  called  fire-clays,  so  well 
known  to  the  geologist  as  occurring  underneath  almost  every  seam 
of  coal  in  the  ancient  carboniferous  rocks. f 

Other  points  of  analogy  might  also  be  indicated  between  the 
deposits,  whether  of  organic  or  inorganic  matter,  now  accumulat 
ing  in  the  valley-plain  and  delta  of  the  Mississippi,  and  those  of 
the  ancient  carboniferous  rocks.  When,  for  example,  depressions 
are  suddenly  caused,  as  in  the  "  sunk  country"  before  described, 
certain  wooded  areas  being  submerged,  the  lower  parts  of  the 
erect  trees  become  enveloped  with  sand  arid  mud,  the  upper  por 
tions  rotting  away,  as  must  have  happened  in  the  case  of  the 
celebrated  fossil  forest  of  Dixon-fold,  in  Lancashire,  belonging  to 
the  ancient  coal-measures. $  In  the  modern  alluvial  plain,  also, 
river-sand  will  be  often  thrown  down,  as  the  Mississippi  shifts  its 
course  over  spaces  on  which  pure  vegetable  matter  had  been  pre 
viously  accumulating  for  hundreds  or  thousands  of  years,  just  as 
we  find  sandstone  sometimes  resting  immediately  upon  the  old 
coal-seams  ;  and,  if  there  be  a  long  succession  of  downward  move 
ments,  the  thickness  of  strata,  all  formed  in  shallow  water  or  in 
swamps,  may  be  indefinitely  great.  Should  the  hilly  country, 
moreover,  be  distant,  pebbles  will  no  more  be  seen  in  the  modern 

*  Silliman's  Journal,  Second  Series,  vol.  v.  p.  17,  January,  ]  848. 

t  In  my  former  "Travels,"  I  have  alluded  to  the  fire-stones  with  Stig- 
maria  (now  acknowledged  to  be  the  root  of  Sigillaria),  underlying  the 
American  coal-seams,  as  they  do  those  of  South  Wales,  3000  miles  distant. 
"  Travels  in  North  America,"  vol.  i.  p.  62. 

t  Proceedings  of  Geol.  Society,  1839.  p.  139. 


136  DEPTH  OF  FRESH- WATER  STRATA.  [CHAP.  XXXIV. 


sand  strewed  over  the  buried  trees  and  layers  of  vegetable  mat 
ter,  than  they  usually  are  in  the  grits  associated  with  the  coal  of 
ancient  date.  The  phenomena,  also,  of  the  New  Madrid  earth 
quake,  may  help  us  to  explain  the  vast  geographical  area  over 
which,  in  the  course  of  ages,  dense  fluviatile  and  lacustrine  strata, 
with  intercalated  beds  of  vegetable  origin,  may  be  made  to  ex 
tend  without  any  inroads  of  the  sea.  For  the  inland  parts  of  any 
hydrographical  basin  may  be  augmented  indefinitely  in  length 
and  breadth,  while  the  seaward  portions  continue  unaltered,  as 
the  delta  around  New  Orleans,  and  the  low  lands  bordering  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico,  preserved  their  level  unchanged,  while  parts  of 
Missouri  and  Tennessee  were  lowered. 

By  duly  appreciating  the  permanent  geographical  revolutions 
which  would  result  from  a  succession  of  such  earthquakes  as  that 
of  1811—12,  in  the  territory  of  New  Madrid,  we  shall  be  pre 
vented  from  embracing  the  theory  implied  in  the  language  of 
those  who  talk  of  "  the  epoch  of  existing  continents."  In  treat 
ing  of  deltas,  they  are  in  the  habit  of  assuming  that  the  present 
mass  of  alluvial  matter  which  has  been  thrown  into  the  sea  at 
the  mouths  of  great  rivers,  began  to  be  deposited  in  all  the  great 
hydrographical  basins  of  the  world  at  one  and  the  same  fixed 
period — namely,  when  the  formation  of  the  existing  continents 
was  completed  ;  as  if  the  relative  levels  of  land  and  sea  had, 
during  that  time,  remained  stationary,  or  had  been  affected  to  so 
inconsiderable  an  amount,  as  to  be  unimportant  in  their  influence 
on  the  physical  geography  of  each  region,  in  comparison  with  the 
changes  wrought  by  the  rivers,  in  converting  sea  into  land.  But 
what  we  already  know  of  the  deltas  of  the  Po,  Indus,  Ganges, 
and  other  rivers,  leads  to  a  very  different  conclusion.  The  bor 
ing  of  an  artesian  well  at  Calcutta,  was  carried  to  the  depth  of 
481  feet,  the  greater  part  of  the  section  being  below  the  level  of 
the  sea,  and  yet  all  the  beds  pierced  through  were  of  fresh-water 
origin,  without  any  intermixture  of  marine  remains.  At  differ 
ent  depths,  even  as  far  down  as  380  feet,  lacustrine  shells,  arid 
a  stratum  of  decayed  wood,  with  vegetable  soil,  which  appears  to 
have  supported  trees,  was  met  with.*  These  appearances  may 
*  See  "  Principles  of  Geology,"  Seventh  Edition,  1847,  p.  266. 


CHAP.  XXXIV.]    AGE  OF  DELTA  OF  MISSISSIPPI.  187 

readily  be  accounted  for,  by  assuming  that  there  was  a  gradual 
subsidence  of  the  ground  for  ages,  which  was  as  constantly  raised 
by  the  accession  of  fluviatile  sediment,  so  as  to  prevent  any  in 
cursion  of  the  sea.  Occasionally  there  were  pauses  in  the  down 
ward  movement,  when  trees  grew  on  the  soil,  and  vegetable  mat 
ter  of  some  thickness  had  time  to  accumulate. 

Recent  observations,  by  Morlat  and  others,  have  demonstrated 
that,  since  the  time  of  the  Romans,  there  has  been  a  general 
subsidence  of  the  coast  at  the  head  of  the  Adriatic,  to  the  amount 
of  five  feet,  which  has  not  prevented  the  delta  of  the  Po  and 
other  rivers  from  advancing  on  the  sea,  although  it  must  have 
checked  their  progress.  Of  the  much  greater  movements  of  ele 
vation  and  depression  which  have  taken  place  in  the  delta  of  the 
Indus,  especially  those  wrought  in  the  year  1819,  I  have  else 
where  given  an  account.^  It  would,  therefore,  be  perfectly  con 
sistent  with  analogy  to  find,  in  the  neighborhood  of  New  Orleans, 
ancient  swamp  formations,  with  the  roots  and  stumps  of  erect 
trees,  unmixed  with  marine  remains,  far  below  the  level  of  the 
sea,  as  is  the  fact,  if  I  can  rely  on  the  information  given  me  in 
1846-f 

Finding  it  impossible  to  calculate  the  age  of  the  delta,  from 
the  observed  rate  of  the  advance  of  the  land  on  the  Gulf  in  each 
century,  I  endeavored  to  approximate,  by  a  different  method,  to 
a  minimum  of  the  time  required  for  bringing  down  from  the  upper 
country  that  large  quantity  of  earthy  matter  which  is  now  depos 
ited  within  the  area  of  the  delta.  Dr.  Riddell  communicated  to 
me,  at  New  Orleans,  the  result  of  a  series  of  experiments  which 
he  had  made,  to  ascertain  the  proportion  of  sediment  contained  in 
the  waters  of  the  Mississippi.  He  concluded  that  the  mean  an 
nual  amount  of  solid  matter  was  to  the  water  as  r.^5  in  weight, 
or  about  ^  in  volume. $  Since  that  period,  he  has  made 
another  series  of  experiments,  and  his  tables  show  that  the  quan- 

*  Principles,  Seventh  Edition,  p.  437.  t  See  ante,  p.  109. 

J  The  calculations  here  given,  were  communicated  to  the  British  Asso 
ciation  in  a  Lecture  which  I  delivered  at  Southampton,  in  September,  1846. 
See  "Athenaeum  Journal,"  Sept.  26,  1846,  and  "Report  of  British  Asso 
ciation,"  1846,  p.  117. 


188  AGE  OF  DELTA  OF  MISSISSIPPI.    [CHAP.  XXXIV. 

tity  of  mud  held  in  suspension,  increases  regularly  with  the  in 
creased  height  arid  velocity  of  the  stream.  On  the  whole,  com 
paring  the  flood  season  with  that  of  clearest  water,  his  experi 
ments,  continued  down  to  1849,  give  an  average  annual  quantity 
of  solid  matter  somewhat  less  than  his  first  estimate,  but  riot  va 
rying  materially  from  it.  From  these  observations,  and  those  of 
Dr.  Carpenter  and  Mr.  Forshey  (an  eminent  engineer,  to  whom 
I  have  before  alluded),  on  the  average  width,  depth,  and  velocity 
of  the  Mississippi,  the  mean  annual  discharge  of  water  and  sedi 
ment  was  deduced.  I  then  assumed  528  feet,  or  the  tenth  of  a 
mile,  as  the  probable  thickness  of  the  deposit  of  mud  and  sand  in 
the  delta  ;  founding  my  conjecture  chiefly  on  the  depth  of  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico  between  the  southern  point  of  Florida  and  the 
Balizc,  which  equals,  on  an  average,  100  fathoms,  and  partly 
on  some  borings,  600  feet  deep,  in  the  delta  near  Lake  Pont- 
chartrain,  north  of  New  Orleans,  in  which  the  bottom  of  the 
alluvial  matter  is  said  not  to  have  been  reached.  The  area 
of  the  delta  being  about  13.600  square  statute  miles,  and  the 
quantity  of  solid  matter  annually  brought  down  by  the  river 
3,702.758,400  cubic  feet,  it  must  have  taken  67,000  years  for 
the  formation  of  the  whole  ;  and  if  the  alluvial  matter  of  the 
plain  above  be  264  feet  deep,  or  half  that  of  the  delta,  it  must 
have  required  33,500  more  years  for  its  accumulation,  even  if  its 
area  be  estimated  as  only  equal  to  that  of  the  delta,  whereas  it  is 
in  fact  larger. 

From  information  since  received,  I  think  it  not  improbable 
that  the  quantity  of  water  may  have  been  underrated  in  this 
estimate  ;*  and,  if  so,  a  larger  amount  of  sediment  would  have 

*  I  allude  chiefly  to  the  observations  and  experiments,  on  the  velocity  of 
the  Mississippi  at  various  depths,  made  by  Mr.  W.  H.  Sidell.  during  a  Gov 
ernment  survey,  communicated  to  me  through  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Ruggles, 
of  New  York,  which,  if  correct,  would  lead  to  the  inference  that  the  average 
number  of  cubic  feet  of  water  discharged  into  the  Gulf  per  second,  is  con 
siderably  greater  than  Mr.  Forshey  and  Dr.  Carpenter  deduced  from  their 
observations  on  the  velocity  of  the  stream  at  different  depths.  If,  as  I  un 
derstand,  there  exist  documents  in  the  hydrographer's  office  at  Washington, 
which  would  afford  more  ample  data  for  such  calculations,  the  Government 
would  confer  a  boon  on  the  scientific  world  by  publishing  them  without 


CHAP.  XXXIV.]     AGE  OF  DELTA  OF  MISSISSIPPI.  189 

been  brought  down  from  the  interior  in  a  given  time,  and  conse 
quently  a  deduction  would  have  to  be  made  from  the  number  of 
centuries  above  stated  on  that  account.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
if  it  could  be  shown,  by  more  accurate  experiments  and  calcula 
tions,  that  the  quantity  of  water  in  the  above  computation  was 
greatly  deficient,  say  even  one-third  less  than  the  real  quantity,  I 
do  not  imagine  that  any  exaggeration  has  been  made  in  the  time 
supposed  to  have  elapsed  since  the  rivers  began  to  transport  their 
earthy  ingredients  to  the  alluvial  plains  of  Louisiana.  The  delta 
is,  after  all,  a  mere  fragmentary  portion  of  a  larger  body  of  mud, 
the  finer  particles  of  which  never  settle  down  near  the  mouths 
of  the  Mississippi,  but  are  carried  far  out  into  the  Gulf,  and  there 
dispersed. 

The  description  which  I  have  given  of  the  great  distance  to 
which  the  yellow  and  lighter  streams  of  fresh  water  are  seen 
extending,  from  the  various  mouths,  in  the  flood-season,  into  the 
Gulf;  and  still  more,  the  destruction  of  the  banks  and  bars  of 
mud  and  sand  caused  by  the  tide  scouring  out  the  channels  when 
the  river  is  low,^  and  the  strength  of  the  marine  current,  run 
ning  ten  miles  an  hour,  and  the  stories  of  anchors  and  heavy 
ballast  cast  up  by  the  breakers  high  and  dry  on  the  shifting 
shoals  near  the  extremity  of  the  delta,  make  me  doubt  whether 

delay.  Such  experiments  as  Mr.  Sidell's,  which  give  the  velocity  at  various 
depths  and  at  different  distances  from  the  banks,  are  the  more  needed, 
because  it  seems  doubtful  whether  any  correct  mathematical  formulae  have 
as  yet  been  furnished  for  calculating  the  mean  rate  at  which  so  deep  a  river 
as  the  Mississippi  flows,  from  observations  made  simply  on  its  superficial 
velocity.  I  placed  all  the  data  given  me  by  Messrs.  Riddell,  Forshey,  and 
Carpenter,  in  the  hands  of  my  friend,  Mr.  George  Rennie,  F.R.S.,  to  whom 
we  are  indebted  for  many  valuable  papers  on  the  application  of  the  science 
of  hydraulics  to  rivers  (see  Report  of  British  Association,  vol.  iii.  p.  415, 
1834),  and,  after  examining  them,  he  came  to  conclusions  which  did  not 
vary  materially  from  those  which  I  had  previously  announced.  Mr.  James 
Nicol,  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Geological  Society  of  London,  before  he 
had  seen  Mr.  Sidell's  experiments,  had  expressed  to  me  his  belief  that  the 
quantity  of  water  carried  to  the  Gulf  by  the  Mississippi,  must  be  greater 
than  I  had  assumed  from  Mr.  Forshey's  calculations,  judging  from  the 
amount  usually  assigned  as  the  annual  discharge  of  rivers  having  hydro- 
graphical  basins  smaller  than  that  of  the  Mississippi. 
*  See  ante,  p.  121. 


190  AGE  OF  DELTA  OF  MISSISSIPPI.    [CHAP.  XXXIV. 

the  larger  part  of  that  impalpable  mud,  which  constitutes  the 
bulk  of  the  solid  matter  carried  into  the  sea  by  the  Mississippi, 
is  not  lost  altogether,  so  far  as  the  progress  of  the  delta  is  con 
cerned.  So  impalpable  is  the  sediment,  and  so  slowly  does  it 
sink,  that  a  glass  of  water  taken  from  the  Mississippi,  may 
remain  motionless  for  three  weeks,  and  yet  all  the  earthy  matter 
will  not  have  reached  the  bottom.  If  particles  so  minute  are 
carried  by  the  current,  setting  for  a  great  portion  of  the  year 
from  west  to  east,  across  the  mouth  of  the  river,  into  the  Gulf 
Stream,  and  so  into  the  Atlantic,  they  might  easily  travel  to  the 
banks  of  Newfoundland  before  sinking  to  the  bottom  ;  and  some 
of  them,  which  left  the  head  waters  of  the  Missouri  in  the  49th 
degree  of  north  latitude,  may,  after  having  gone  southward  to 
the  Gulf,  and  then  northward  to  the  Great  Banks,  have  found 
no  resting-place  before  they  had  wandered  for  a  distance  as  far 
as  from  the  pole  to  the  equator,  and  returned  to  the  very  latitude 
from  which  they  set  out.  Were  it  not  for  the  peculiar  manner 
in  which  the  Mississippi  forms  long  bars  of  sand,  which  frequently 
unite  with  some  part  of  the  coast,  so  as  to  dam  out  the  sea  and 
form  lagoons,  the  deposition  of  sediment  in  the  delta  would  be 
much  less  considerable.  A  lagoon,  like  Lake  Pontchartrain, 
once  formed,  becomes  a  receptacle  of  the  finest  mud,  poured  into 
it  by  an  arm  of  the  great  river  during  the  flood  season,  and  the 
space  thus  parted  off  from  the  Gulf  by  bars  of  sand,  is  protected 
from  the  action  of  the  breakers  and  marine  currents. 

When  I  inquired  what  might  be  the  depth  of  the  fluviatile 
mud  in  the  suburbs  of  New  Orleans,  I  was  told  that,  in  making 
a  railroad  near  Lake  Pontchartrain,  piles  were  driven  down  sixty 
feet  into  the  soft  mud  or  slush,  and  when  a  boring  was  made 
there,  600  feet  deep,  beds  of  gnathodon  were  found,  but  no 
marine  shells. 

The  depth  of  the  alluvium  may  vary  in  different  parts  of  the 
great  sloping  plain  ;  for  certain  areas,  such  as  the  "  sunk  coun 
try,"  for  example,  west  of  New  Madrid,  may  have  been  repeat 
edly  depressed,  and  have  been  always  brought  up  again  to  the 
same  superficial  level,  by  the  deposition  of  the  river  rnud,  or  the 
growth  of  vegetable  matter. 


CHAP.  XXXIV.]  CYPRESS  TREES.  191 

The  age  of  stumps  and  erect  trunks  of  the  deciduous  cypress, 
whether  living  or  buried,  retaining  their  natural  position,  at 
points  near  the  present  termination  of  the  delta,  ought  to  be 
carefully  examined,  as  they  might  afford  evidence  of  the  minimum 
of  time  which  can  be  allowed  for  the  gain  of  land  on  the  sea. 
Some  single  trunks  in  Louisiana  are  said  to  contain  from  800  to 
2000  rings  of  annual  growth,  and  Dr.  M.  W.  Dickeson  and  Mr. 
A.  Brown  state,  that  the  cypress  brakes  or  basins,  which  fill  up 
gradually,  give  place  at  length  to  other  timber  ;  but  before  this 
happens,  the  buried  cypress  stumps  often  extend  through  a  de 
posit  of  vegetable  and  sedimentary  matter  twenty-five  feet  thick. 
"  Sections  of  such  filled-up  cypress  basins,  exposed  by  the  changes 
in  the  position  of  the  river,  exhibit  undisturbed,  perfect,  arid  erect 
stumps,  in  a  series  of  every  elevation  with  respect  to  each  other, 
extending  from  high-water  mark  down  to  at  least  twenty-five 
feet  below,  measuring  out  a  time  when  not  less  than  ten  fully- 
matured  cypress  growths  must  have  succeeded  each  other,  the 
average  of  whose  age  could  not  have  been  less  than  400  years, 
thus  making  an  aggregate  of  4000  years  since  the  first  cypress 
tree  vegetated  in  the  basin. *  There  are  also  instances  where 
prostrate  trunks,  of  huge  dimensions,  are  found  imbedded  in  the 
clay,  immediately  over  which  are  erect  stumps  of  trees,  number 
ing  no  less  than  800  concentric  layers." 

Michaud,  in  his  famous  work  on  the  forest  trees  of  North 
America,  mentions  that  stems  of  this  deciduous  cypress  ( Taxodi- 
um  distichum)  are  met  with  in  Florida,  and  in  southern  Louisi 
ana,  forty  feet  in  circumference  above  the  enlarged  base,  which 
is  three  or  four  times  that  size  ;  but  such  individuals  dwindle  to 
nothing  before  the  gigantic  trunk  near  Santa  Maria  del  Tule,  in 
the  province  of  Oaxaca,  in  Mexico,  which  was  first  mentioned  by 
Exeter,  who  found  its  circumference  to  be  117-10  French  feet. 
Zuccarini,  has  lately  removed  the  doubts  of  Do  Candolle  respect 
ing  this  measurement,  which  was  taken  above  the  dilated  base, 
for  that  was  no  less  than  200  feet  in  circumference.  In  this 
stem  there  would  be  5352  rings  of  annual  growth,  if  one  line  a 
year  was  taken  as  the  average  growth,  the  deposit  of  wood 

*  Silliraan's  Journal,  Second  Series,  vol.  v.  p.  17.     January,  1848. 


192  ALLUVIAL  PLAIN.  [CHAP.  XXXIV. 

becoming  always  much  smaller  in  trees  of  great  age  ;  but  Zuc- 
carini,  in  his  estimate,  thinks  it  may  be  safer  to  assume  1-6  line 
as  the  average,  which  would  even  then  give  the  age  of  3512 
years  for  this  single  tree. 

The  great  number  of  crescent-shaped  lakes  to  the  westward  of 
the  Mississippi,  which  formerly  constituted  bends  in  its  ancient 
channel,  are  also  monuments  of  the  antiquity  of  the  great  plain 
over  which  the  river  has  been  wandering.  Darby,  the  geogra 
pher,  observed  that,  in  the  steep  banks  of  the  Atchafalaya,  there 
are  alternations  of  the  bluish  clay  of  the  Mississippi  arid  of  the 
red  ocherous  earth  peculiar  to  Red  River,  proving  that  the 
waters  of  these  two  streams  once  occupied  alternately  consider 
able  tracts  below  their  present  point  of  union. ^  Since  their 
junction  (an  event,  the  date  of  which  is  unknown),  the  waters 
and  sediment  of  the  Red  River  and  Mississippi  have  been  thor 
oughly  mixed  up  together,  before  any  deposition  of  their  mud 
takes  place  in  the  lower  country.  It  is  evident,  therefore,  that, 
when  we  are  enabled,  by  geological  observations  such  as  those  of 
Darby,  to  distinguish  the  older  from  the  newer  portions,  even  of 
the  modem  alluvial  plain,  we  may  obtain  more  aid  in  our  chro 
nological  computations  founded  on  rings  of  growth  in  buried  trees ; 
for  we  may  then  add  the  years  deduced  from  stumps  buried  in 
the  modern  parts  of  the  delta,  to  those  proved  by  the  structure 
of  trees  included  in  mud  of  earlier  date. 

After  considering  the  age  and  origin  of  the  modem  deposits  of 
the  Mississippi  and  its  tributaries,  we  have  still  to  carry  back 
our  thoughts  to  the  era  of  the  fresh-water  strata  seen  in  the  bluffs 
which  bound  the  great  valley.  These,  in  their  southern  termina 
tion,  have  evidently  formed  an  ancient  coast-line,  beyond  which 
the  modern  delta  has  been  pushed  forward  into  the  sea.  Let  a, 
b  (fig.  10)  represent  the  alluvial  plain  of  the  Mississippi,  bound 
ed  on  its  eastern  side  at  Vicksburg,  as  before  described,  by  the 
bluffs  d,  at  the  foot  of  which  are  seen  the  Eocene  strata,  ft  the 
upper  part  of  the  bluff  being  composed  of  shelly  loam,  or  loess,  of 
fresh- water  origin,  d,  e  (No.  2). 

At  Memphis,  Port  Hudson,  and  many  other  places,  loam  of 
*  Darby's  Louisiana,  p.  103. 


CHAP.  XXXIV.]  UPRAISED  TERRACES.  1;»3 

the  same  age  as  No.  2,  rising  from  50  to  200  feet  above  the 
level  of  the  sea,  constitutes  the  entire  bluffs,  forming  a  table-land 
like  that  represented  at  d,  e.  Similar  deposits,  #,  c  (fig.  10), 
recur  in  Louisiana,  on  the  western  side  of  the  great  valley  ;  but 
they  are  not,  I  am  informed,  denuded  so  as  to  present  a  steep 
bluff  at  a.  They  rest  equally  on  Eocene  strata, /(No.  3). 

From  what  has  been  said  of  the  species  of  shells  contained  in 
the  loam,  d,  e,  at  Natchez,  and  in  other  localities,  from  the 
remains  also  of  associated  terrestrial  animals,  and  from  the 
buried  trees  of  Port  Hudson,  we  have  inferred  that  these  deposits 
(No.  2),  are  the  monuments  of  an  ancient  alluvial  plain,  of  an 
age  long  anterior  to  that  through  which  the  Mississippi  now 

Fig.  10. 

VALLEY  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI. 
Louisiana.  c 


1.  Alluvium.  2.  Loess.  3.  /.  Eocene.  4.  Cretaceous. 

flows,  which  was  inhabited  by  land  and  fresh-water  mollusca 
agreeing  with  those  now  existing,  and  by  quadrupeds  now  for 
the  most  part  extinct. 

In  my  former  "  Travels  in  North  America,"  I  described  some 
ancient  terraces  of  gravel,  sand,  and  loam,  occurring  every  where 
in  the  valley  of  the  Ohio,  and  gave  a  section  of  them  as  they  are 
seen  at  Cincinnati.*  I  pointed  out  that  the  included  fossil 
shells  demonstrate  the  fluviatile  and  modem  origin  of  the 
deposits,  and  suggested  that  their  present  position  could  only  be 
explained  by  supposing,  first,  a  gradual  sinking  down  of  the  land 
after  the  original  excavation  of  the  valley,  during  which  period 
the  gravel  and  sand  were  thrown  down,  and  then  an  upheaval 
of  the  same  valley,  when  the  river  cut  deep  channels  through 
the  fresh-water  beds.f  Certain  swamp  formations  observable  in 

*  Travels  in  North  America,  fig.  9,  vol.  ii.  p.  59,  chap.  xvii. 
t  The  second  terrace  (c,  fig.  9,  ibid.)  at  Cincinnati,  may  imply  a  second 
oscillation. 

VOL    II.. — I 


194  EXTINCT  QUADRUPEDS.  [CHAP.  XXXIV. 

the  valleys  of  small  tributaries  of  the  Ohio,  such  as  those  of  Big 
Bone  Lick,  in  Kentucky,  and  Mill  Creek,  near  Cincinnati,  are 
of  geological  celebrity,  in  consequence  of  the  great  number  of 
skeletons  of  extinct  mammalia,  such  as  the  megalonyx,  mastodon, 
elephant,  and  others,  which  seem  to  have  lived,  and  have  been 
mired  in  ancient  morasses,  before  the  land  began  to  sink ;  for  the 
great  mass  of  fluviatile  loam  and  gravel  forming  the  terraces,  has 
been  superimposed  on  the  black  bog  earth  containing  such  bones. 
The  teeth,  however,  and  bones  of  similar  extinct  quadrupeds, 
especially  the  mastodon,  are  occasionally  met  with  scattered 
through  the  incumbent  gravel  and  loam,  so  that  the  same 
assemblage  of  quadrupeds  continued  to  inhabit  the  valleys  while 
the  first  change  of  level  or  the  subsidence  was  going  on.  By  sim 
ply  extending  to  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  the  theory  before 
applied  to  that  of  the  Ohio,  we  may,  as  already  stated  at  p.  142, 
in  reference  to  the  Port  Hudson  bluffs,  account  for  the  geological 
appearances  seen  in  the  larger  and  more  southern  area. 

It  has  been  long  ascertained  that  in  Norway  and  Sweden  a 
gradual  rise  of  the  land  above  the  sea  has  been  going  on  for 
many  centuries,  producing  an  apparent  fall  in  the  waters  of  the 
adjoining  ocean.  The  rate  of  elevation  increases  as  we  proceed 
northward  from  Gothenburg  to  the  North  Cape,  the  two  extremi 
ties  of  this  line  being  distant  more  than  a  thousand  geographical 
miles  from  each  other,  and  we  know  not  how  much  farther  north 
or  south  the  motion  may  be  prolonged  under  water.  The  rise  of 
the  land,  which  is  more  than  five  feet  in  a  hundred  years  at  the 
North  Cape,  gradually  diminishes  to  a  few  inches  in  a  century 
iu  the  neighborhood  of  Stockholm,  to  the  south  of  which  the 
upward  movement  ceases  ;  and  in  Scania,  the  southernmost  part 
of  Sweden,  appears  to  give  place  to  a  slight  movement  in  an 
opposite  or  downward  direction.1* 

We  also  know  that  part  of  the  west  coast  of  Greenland,  ex 
tending  about  600  miles  north  and  south,  has  been  subsiding  for 
three  or  four  centuries,  between  latitudes  60°  arid  69°  N.f  But 
whether,  in  this  instance,  the  rate  of  depression  varies  in  different 
parts  of  the  sinking  area,  has  not  yet  been  determined.  In  spec- 
*  Principles  of  Geology,  7th  Ed.  p.  506.  t  See  "  Principles,"  ibid. 


CHAP.  XXXIV.]          OSCILLATION  OF  LEVEL.  195 

ulating,  however,  on  the  manner  in  which  the  valleys  of  the  Mis 
sissippi  and  its  tributaries  may  have  been  affected  by  subterranean 
movements,  we  are  at  least  authorized  by  analogy  to  assume  that 
the  downward  movement  may  have  been  greater  in  the  more 
inland  part  of  the  continent,  just  as  we  have  seen  in  1811—12, 
that  the  "  sunk  country"  west  of  New  Madrid  subsided,  while 
the  level  of  the  delta  at  New  Orleans  underwent  no  sensible- 
change.  If,  then,  the  vertical  movement  in  the  interior,  in  and 
near  the  valley  of  the  Ohio,  for  example,  were  greater  than  near 
the  Gulf,  as,  if.  in  the  former  case,  it  were  two  and  a  half  feet  in 
a  century,  and  near  the  sea  only  half  that  amount,  it  would  fol 
low  that  the  general  fall  of  the  rivers  would  be  lessened.  They 
would  deposit  all  their  heavier,  and  some  even  of  their  finer  sedi 
ment,  in  their  channels,  instead  of  having  power  to  carry  it  to  the 
sea.  They  would  fill  up  their  beds,  and  often  overflow  the  ad 
joining  plains,  raising  their  level  by  repeated  layers  of  fluviatile 
matter  or  silt,  frequently  containing  the  shells  of  land  and  amphib 
ious  mollusks. 

If,  even  now,  the  Mississippi,  when  flooded,  dams  up  the  mouths 
of  its  great  tributaries,  and  transforms  them  for  months  into  tem 
porary  lakes,  it  must  have  produced  the  same  effect  to  a  far  greater 
extent  if  at  any  time  the  general  fall  of  the  country  toward  the 
sea  was  less  rapid. 

In  narrow  valleys  bounded  by  ancient  rocks  500  or  600  feet 
high,  such  as  that  of  the  Ohio,  the  alluvial  formation  could  never 
acquire  great  breadth.  Its  thickness  would  depend  entirely  on 
the  length  of  time  throughout  which  the  subsidence  was  prolong 
ed.  But  nearer  the  sea,  where  the  continent  falls  with  a  gentle 
slope  toward  the  Gulf,  the  encroachment  of  the  fresh-water  de 
posits  (No.  2,  fig.  11,  p.  196),  of  the  great  river  on  the  tertiary 
strata  (No.  3),  constituting  the  original  bluffs  on  its  eastern  and 
western  boundaries,  might  be  very  great. 

If  we  then  suppose  the  downward  movement  to  cease,  and  to 
be  at  length  converted  into  an  ascending  one,  the  rate  of  up 
heaval  being  greatest  in  the  more  inland  country,  the  fall  of  every 
river,  and  consequently  its  velocity,  would  begin  immediately  to 
augment.  Their  power  of  carrying  earthy  matter  seaward,  and 


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CHAP.  XXXIV.]  OSCILLATION  OF  LEVEL.  197 

of  scouring1  out  and  deepening  their  channels,  would  be  greater 
and  greater,  till  at  length,  after  a  lapse  of  many  thousand  years, 
each  of  them  would  have  eroded  a  deep  channel  or  valley  through 
the  fluviatile  formation  previously  accumulated.  The  surface  of 
what  was  once  the  river-plain  at  the  period  of  greatest  depression, 
would  remain  fringing  the  valley  sides  as  a  terrace,  apparently 
flat,  but  in  reality  sloping  down  with  the  general  inclination  of 
the  valley.  Every  where  this  terrace  would  present  clifis  of 
gravel  and  sand  facing  the  river. 

After  these  changes,  the  fundamental  strata  (Nos.  3,4,  5,  fig. 
1 1,  p.  196)  might  be  restored  nearly  to  their  ancient  positions  ; 
the  fresh- water  beds  (No.  2)  having  been  raised,  and  having  suf 
fered  great  denudation. 

It  is  not  improbable  that  the  same  series  of  movements  gave 
rise  to  the  accumulation  and  present  position  of  marine  strata  of 
comparatively  modern  date,  forming  the  lower  terrace  near  Da- 
rien  in  Georgia*1  which  is  indicated  at  2*,  in  the  annexed  section 
(fig.  11).  The  reader  will  remember  that  the  remains  of  the 
megatherium,  mastodon,  elephant,  Harlanus,  equus,  and  other  ex 
tinct  species  of  land  quadrupeds,  are  there  associated  with  marine 
shells,  of  species  agreeing  with  those  now  inhabiting  the  Atlantic. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  proofs  in  Texas  of  the  prevalence 
of  the  same  succession  of  subterranean  movements  far  to  the  south 
west,  along  the  country  bordering  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  ;  for  on  the 
Brazos  River  there  are  beds  of  loam,  or  loess,  examined  by  Dr. 
Dickeson,  and,  when  at  New  Orleans,  I  saw  the  bones  of  extinct 
quadrupeds  brought  from  that  deposit.  Among  them  was  the 
jaAv-bone  of  a  tapir,  apparently  identical  with  the  South  Ameri 
can  species  ;  remains  of  the  mastodon,  elephant,  ox,  and  other 
mammalia,  much  resembling,  on  the  whole,  those  found  at  Nat 
chez  and  on  the  Ohio. 

As  to  the  seaward  extremity  of  the  ancient  delta,  the  effect  of 
the  gradual  depression  of  land  above  assumed  would  be  to  cause 
its  mud  and  sand  to  increase  in  thickness,  instead  of  augmenting 
in  area.  When  at  length  the  movement  was  reversed,  and  the 
fresh- water  deposits  began  to  rise,  the  action  of  the  sea  would  un- 
*  See  ante,  vol.  i.  p.  257. 


198  PROBABLE  RATE  OF  SUBSIDENCE.  [CHAP.  XXXIV. 

dermine  them,  and,  aided  by  the  river  and  tides,  sweep  much  of 
them  away,  and  perhaps  shape  out  a  bay.  But  the  swamp-mud, 
with  innumerable  interlaced  roots  of  cypress  and  other  trees,  might 
offer  considerable  resistance  ;  and,  after  a  time,  the  river  charged 
with  sediment  would  throw  down  bars,  and  form  a  breakwater, 
to  protect  the  newly  upraised  deposits  from  annihilation. 

In  regard  to  the  time  consumed  in  accomplishing  the  great 
oscillation  of  level  which  first  depressed  so  large  an  area  to  the 
depth  of  200  feet  or  more,  and  then  restored  it  to  its  former  po 
sition,  it  is  impossible,  in  the  present  state  of  science,  to  form  more 
than  a  conjecture  as  to  the  probable  mean  rate  of  movement. 
To  suppose  an  average  sinking  and  upheaval  of  two  and  a  half 
feet  in  a  century,  might  be  sufficient,  or  would,  perhaps,  be  too 
great,  judging  from  the  mean  rate  of  change  in  Scandinavia, 
Greenland,  the  north  of  the  Adriatic,  and  other  regions.  Even 
such  an  oscillation,  if  simultaneously  continuous  over  the  whole 
area,  first  in  one  direction,  and  then  in  another,  and  without  any 
interruptions  or  minor  oscillations,  would  require  sixteen  thousand 
years  for  its  accomplishment.  But  the  section  at  Cincinnati 
seems  to  imply  two  oscillations,  and  there  would  probably  be 
pauses,  and  a  stationary  period,  when  the  downward  movement 
ceased,  and  was  not  yet  changed  into  an  upward  one.  Nor 
ought  we  to  imagine  that  the  whole  space  was  always  in  motion 
at  once. 

When  we  have  at  length  done  our  best  to  trace  back  the  his 
tory  of  the  more  modern  and  more  ancient  alluvial  formations  of 
the  Mississippi,  the  question  still  remains,  what  may  be  their  age 
relatively  to  the  great  body  of  the  drift  containing  erratic  blocks 
in  the  northern  latitudes  of  this  same  continent.  The  terraces 
of  gravel  and  loam  bordering  the  Ohio,  and  those  on  a  larger 
scale,  but  of  the  same  age,  which  constitute  many  of  the  eastern 
bluffs  of  the  Mississippi,  are  evidently  features  of  subordinate  im 
portance  in  the  physical  configuration  of  the  continent.  But  to 
explain  the  origin  of  the  northern  drift  of  the  Canadian  lake  dis 
trict,  and  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  as  I  have  endeavored  to  show  in 
my  former  "  Travels,"  requires  a  reference  to  such  changes  as 
would  imply  the  submergence  of  a  great  part  of  the  continent 


CHAP.  XXXIV.]  NORTHERN  DRIFT.  199 

drained  by  the  head  waters  of  the  Mississippi,  Missouri,  and  their 
northern  tributaries.*  For  this  and  other  reasons,  into  which  I 
can  not  now  enter,  I  presume  that  the  great  mass  of  the  most 
elevated  drift  in  the  north,  and  the  glacial  grooving  and  polishing 
of  the  rocks,  although  they  belong  to  a  very  modern  era  in  the 
earth's  history,  were  nevertheless  anterior  in  date  to  the  loam  of 
Natchez  and  Vicksburg. 

There  exist  in  Canada,  in  the  Niagara  district,  in  New  York, 
and  other  states  north  of  the  Ohio,  lacustrine  and  swamp  deposits 
of  marl  and  bog-earth,  including  the  bones  of  extinct  quadrupeds, 
such  as  the  mastodon,  elephant,  castoroides,  and  others,  associated 
with  land  and  fresh-water  shells  of  recent  species,  which  are 
decidedly  post-glacial,  and  often  found  in  hollows  in  the  drift. 
These  may  be  of  contemporaneous  date  with  the  loam  of  Port 
Hudson  and  Natchez. 

The  northern  drift,  however,  is  by  no  means  all  of  the  same 
age,  and  as  the  period  of  glaciers  and  icebergs  freighted  with 
erratics  is  still  going  on,  and  has  now  a  wide  range  in  the  tem 
perate  parts  of  the  Atlantic,  bordering  the  eastern  shores  of  North 
America,  so  must  we  naturally  suppose  that  certain  parts  of  the 
drift,  especially  those  found  at  lower  levels,  and  near  the  sea, 
may  not  be  more  ancient  than  the  loam  of  the  western  bluffs  of 
the  Mississippi. 

*  See  vol.  i.  ch.  ii.  p.  47,  and  vol.  ii.  ch.  xix.  p.  99. 


CHAPTER   XXXV. 

Departure  from  New  Madrid. — Night-watch  for  Steamers. — Scenery  of  the 
Ohio  River. — Mount  Vernon,  Ornithology. — No  Undergrowth  in  Woods. 
— Spring  Flowers. — Visit  to  Dr.  Dale  Owen,  New  Harmony. — Fossil 
Forest  of  erect  Trees  in  Coal-measures. — Movers  migrating  Westward. 
— Voyage  to  Louisville. — Professional  Zeal  of  one  of  "  the  Pork  Aristo 
cracy." — Fossil  Coral-reef  at  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio,  Louisville. — Fossil 
Zoophytes  as  perfect  as  recent  Stone-corals. 

March  27,  1846.— -WE  took  up  our  quarters  in  the  wharf- 
boat  at  New  Madrid  in  readiness  to  sail  by  the  first  steamer 
bound  for  the  Ohio,  for  I  wished  to  visit  New  Harmony  in  In 
diana,  and  there  was  some  risk  of  being  detained  several  days. 
The  first  steamer  we  hailed,  was  bound  for  St.  Louis,  the  next 
for  the  Cumberland  river,  Tennessee,  and  a  third  which  might 
have  taken  us  to  Mount  Vernon,  in  Indiana,  where  I  meant  to 
disembark,  was  unwilling  to  lose  time  by  stopping,  the  captain 
shouting  out  that  she  was  full  of  passengers,  and  heavily  laden. 

Before  retiring  to  rest,  I  engaged  with  the  keeper  of  the  boat 
that  he  should  appoint  a  good  night-watch,  and  an  hour  after 
dark,  I  was  awakened  by  the  loud  puffing  and  splashing  of  a 
steamer,  evidently  close  at  hand.  Going  on  deck,  I  found  the 
faithless  black  sentinel  fast  asleep.  It  was  already  too  late  to 
hail  the  vessel,  but  we  made  out  that  she  was  the  Nimrod,  and 
I  afterward  learnt,  that  in  the  course  of  her  voyage  she  was 
snagged,  both  her  chimneys  thrown  down,  and  her  boiler  pierced, 
so  that  we  had  a  narrow  escape.  I  now  gave  the  keeper  of  the 
wharf-boat  to  understand  that  the  whole  town  of  New  Madrid 
should  be  informed  next  day  in  what  manner  their  night-watches 
were  kept,  which  piqued  him,  and  he  then  lighted  a  large  fire  on 
the  bank  ;  but  having  no  longer  any  faith  in  the  sentinel,  I  could 
not  sleep,  so  I  determined  to  keep  a  look-out  myself.  Fortunately 
another  steamer  soon  appeared  ;  and,  almost  before  she  was  fairly 
alongside,  a  party  of  active  negroes  leapt  upon  our  deck,  each 


CHAP.  XXXV.]  SCENERY  ON  THE  OHIO.  201 

snatching  up  an  article  of  our  luggage,  while  the  clerk  ushered 
us  over  the  plank  into  a  brilliantly  lighted  saloon.  The  change 
of  scene  to  travelers  who  had  been  roughing  it  for  several  days 
under  a  humble  roof,  talking  with  trappers  about  the  watery  wil 
derness  of  the  "  sunk  country,"  and  who  had  just  stepped  out  of 
a  dark  half-furnished  wharf-boat,  was  more  like  the  fiction  of  a 
fairy  tale,  than  a  real  incident  in  an  ordinary  journey.  Some 
musicians  were  playing  at  one  end  of  the  room,  which  was  150 
feet  long,  and  a  gay  young  party  from  New  Orleans  were  danc 
ing  a  quadrille.  At  the  other  end  we  were  delighted  to  see  a 
table  covered  with  newspapers,  for  we  were  nearly  a  week  in 
arrear  of  news,  and  their  columns  were  filled  with  the  recent  de 
bates  of  the  English  House  of  Commons.  There  were  also  many 
articles  reprinted  from  the  best  European  periodicals,  quarterly 
and  monthly,  besides  those  published  in  New  England  and  New 
York.  Nor  were  any  of  the  advantages  afforded  by  this  floating 
palace  more  like  an  eastern  tale  of  enchantment,  than  the  thought, 
as  we  went  to  our  berths,  that  before  we  rose  next  morning  to 
breakfast  we  should  be  transported  more  than  a  hundred  miles  on 
our  route  northward  against  the  current  of  a  mighty  river. 

March  29. — Passed  Cairo  in  the  night,  and  next  morning 
were  at  Smithland  on  the  Ohio,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Cumber 
land  Hiver,  having  Kentucky  on  our  right  hand,  and  Illinois  on 
the  left.  Limestone  cliffs,  bounding  the  valley,  were  a  welcome 
sight,  after  the  eye  had  been  dwelling  for  so  many  weeks  on  flat 
and  level  regions.  Although  we  had  not  yet  ascended  the  river 
to  a  height  of  much  more  than  200  feet  above  the  level  of  the 
sea,  the  climate  had  changed,  and  we  were  told  that  snow  had 
fallen  the  day  before.  We  observed  that  the  red-bud,  or  Judas- 
tree,  was  not  yet  in  flower. 

On  reaching  the  mouth  of  the  Wabash  River,  which  divides  Illi 
nois  from  Indiana,  I  learnt  that  when  the  ice  breaks  up  there  in 
the  spring,  it  is  often  packed  into  such  masses  that,  before  melt 
ing,  they  float  down  with  gravel  frozen  on  to  them  as  far  as  New 
Madrid.  This  fact  may  explain  the  coarseness  of  the  materials 
observable  in  the  shoals  of  the  Mississippi,  at  low  water,  near 
Natchez,  and  still  farther  down  ;  and  may  perhaps  throw  light 

i* 


202  ORNITHOLOGY.  [CiiAP.  XXXV. 

on  some  large  boulders,  of  a  former  period,  in  the  ancient  gravel 
below  the  shelly  loam  of  Natchez. 

At  Mount  Vernon  we  landed,  and  I  collected  there  many  fossil 
shells,  of  fresh-water  and  land  species,  from  a  terrace  of  yellow 
loam,  elevated  many  yards  above  high- water  mark,  on  the  Ohio. 
Returning  from  my  excursion,  I  fell  in  with  a  naturalist  of  the 
place,  armed  with  a  rifle,  and  carrying  some  wild  birds  which  he 
had  shot.  He  was  a  shoemaker  by  trade,  and  had  a  collection 
of  more  than  150  well-stuffed  birds  from  the  neighborhood.  He 
told  me  that  the  notes  I  heard  here  in  the  woods  were  chiefly 
those  of  the  red-bird,  but  that  some  of  the  most  musical  were  the 
song  of  a  brown  thrush,  called,  in  Indiana,  the  mocking  bird,  but 
differing  from  the  real  musician  of  that  name,  which,  though 
abounding  at  New  Madrid,  does  not  range  so  far  north  as  the 
Ohio.  Conversing  with  him,  I  learnt  that  the  loud  tapping  of 
the  large  red-headed  woodpecker,  so  common  a  sound  in  the 
American  forests,  is  not  produced,  as  I  had  imagined,  by  the 
action  of  the  beak  perforating  the  bark  or  wood,  but  is  merely  a 
succession  of  sharp  blows  on  the  trunk  of  the  tree,  after  which 
the  bird  is  seen  to  listen  attentively,  to  know  if  there  are  any 
insects  within.  Should  they  stir  in  their  alarm,  and  betray  the 
fact  of  their  being  "at  home,"  the  woodpecker  begins  immediately 
to  excavate  a  hole  in  the  rotten  timber. 

I  had  promised  to  pay  a  visit  to  Dr.  David  Dale  Owen,  the 
state  geologist  of  Indiana,  and  hired  a  carriage  which  conveyed 
us  to  New  Harmony,  situated  on  the  Wabash  River  sixty  miles 
above  its  junction  with  the  Ohio.  On  our  way  across  the  coun 
try,  we  went  through  a  continuous  forest,  consisting  chiefly  of 
oak,  beech,  and  poplar,  without  any  undergrowth,  and  in  this 
respect  differing  remarkably  from  the  wooded  valleys  and  hills  of 
the  Alleghanies,  and  the  region  eastward  of  those  mountains,  as 
well  as  all  parts  of  New  England.  Here  there  were  no  kalmias 
or  azaleas,  or  sweet  fern,  or  candleberry,  or  other  evergreens. 
The  green  carpet  beneath  the  trees  was  made  up  largely  of 
mosses,  and  among  them  was  that  beautiful  European  species 
of  feather-moss,  Hypnum  prolifcrum,  in  great  plenty.  The 
trunks  of  many  trees  were  spotted  by  a  jet-black  fungus  resem- 


CHAP.  XXXV.]  NEW  HARMONY.  203 

bling  a  lichen.  Below  the  branches  we  were  pleased  to  gather 
several  spring  flowers,  the  white  anemone,  the  blood-root  (San- 
guinaria  canadensis),  the  dog-tooth  violet  (Erythronium  ameri- 
canum),  and  the  spring-beauty  (Claytonia  virginica). 

Though  a  large  proportion  of  the  mosses  and  other  cryptogamia 
are  identical  with  those  of  Europe,  we  saw  no  flower  which  was 
not  peculiar  to  America.  Many  European  plants,  however,  are 
making  their  way  here,  such  as  the  wild  camomile,  and  the 
thorn-apple  (Datura  Stramonium) ;  and  it  is  a  curious  fact, 
which  I  afterward  learnt  from  Dr.  Dale  Owen,  that  when  such 
foreigners  are  first  naturalized  they  overrun  the  country  with 
amazing  rapidity,  and  are  quite  a  nuisance.  But  they  soon  grow 
scarce,  and  after  eight  or  ten  years  can  hardly  be  met  with. 

We  spent  several  days  very  agreeably  at  New  Harmony,  where 
we  were  most  hospitably  welcomed  by  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Dale  Owen. 
The  town  is  pleasantly  situated  in  a  valley  watered  by  the 
Wabash,  which  here  divides  the  states  of  Indiana  and  Illinois. 
Some  large  buildings,  in  the  German  style  of  architecture,  stand 
conspicuous,  and  were  erected  by  Rapp  ;  but  the  communities 
founded  by  him,  and  afterward  by  Robert  Owen  of  Lanark,  have 
disappeared,  the  principal  edifice  being  now  appropriated  as  a 
public  museum,  in  which  I  found  a  good  collection  of  geological 
specimens,  both  fossils  and  minerals,  made  during  the  state  survey, 
and  was  glad  to  learn  that  the  Legislature,  with  a  view  of  en 
couraging  science,  has  exempted  this  building  from  taxes.  Lec 
tures  on  chemistry  and  geology  are  given  here  in  the  winter. 
Many  families  of  superior  intelligence,  English,  Swiss,  and  Ger 
man,  have  settled  in  the  place,  and  there  is  a  marked  simplicity 
in  their  manner  of  living  which  reminded  us  of  Germany.  They 
are  very  sociable,  and  there  were  many  private  parties  where 
there  was  music  and  dancing,  and  a  public  assembly  once  a  week, 
to  one  of  which  we  went,  where  quadrilles  and  waltzes  were 
danced,  the  band  consisting  of  amateur  musicians. 

Say,  the  eminent  conchologist,  who  died  at  the  age  of  forty- 
five,  formerly  resided  at  New  Harmony  ;  and  recently  Prince 
Maximilian,  of  Neuwied,  and  the  naturalists  who  accompanied 
him,  passed  a  winter  here.  We  found  also,  among  the  residents, 


204  FOSSIL,  TREES,  INDIANA.  [CHAP.  XXXV. 


a  brother  of  Mr.  Maclure,  the  geologist,  who  placed  his  excellent 
library  and  carriage  at  our  disposal.  He  lends  his  books  freely 
among  the  citizens,  and  they  are  much  read.  We  were  glad  to 
hear  many  recent  publications,  some  even  of  the  most  expensively 
illustrated  works,  discussed  and  criticised  in  society  here.  We 
were  also  charmed  to  meet  with  many  children  happy  and  merry, 
yet  perfectly  obedient ;  and  once  more  to  see  what,  after  the  ex 
perience  of  the  last  two  or  three  months,  struck  us  as  a  singular 
phenomenon  in  the  New  World,  a  shy  child  ! 

I  made  some  geological  excursions  with  Dr.  Owen  and  his 
friend,  Mr.  Bolton,  to  see  the  "  carboniferous  rocks,"  of  which 
this  region  is  constituted,  and  the  shelly  loam,  like  that  of 
Natchez,  which  has  evidently  once  filled  up  to  a  considerable 
height  the  valley  of  the  Wabash,  and  through  which  the  running 
waters  have  re-excavated  the  present  valley. 

There  is  no  church  or  place  of  public  worship  in  New  Harmony, 
a  peculiarity  which  we  never  remarked  in  any  town  of  half  the 
size  in  the  course  of  our  tour  in  the  United  States.  Being  here 
on  week-days  only,  I  had  no  opportunity  of  observing  whether  on 
Sundays  there  are  any  meetings  for  social  worship.  I  heard  that 
when  the  people  of  Evansville  once  reproached  the  citizens  of  this 
place  for  having  no  churches,  they  observed  that  they  had  also  no 
shops  for  the  sale  of  spirituous  liquors,  which  is  still  a  character 
istic  of  New  Harmony  ;  whereas  Evansville,  like  most  of  the 
neighboring  towns  of  Indiana,  abounds  in  such  incentives  to  in 
temperance. 

April  3. — Left  New  Harmony  for  Evansville,  on  the  Ohio, 
Mr.  Maclure  having  kindly  lent  us  his  carriage  and  horses.  We 
were  accompanied  by  Dr.  Dale  Owen  and  Mr.  Bolton.  On  the 
way,  we  visited  KimbalFs  mill,  in  the  township  of  Robinson,  in 
Poser  County,  fourteen  miles  northwest  of  Evansville,  where  a  fine 
example  is  seen  of  upright  fossil  trees  belonging  to  a  species  of 
Sigillaria.  These  are  imbedded  in  strata  of  argillaceous  shale, 
or  hardened  mud,  which  constitute  the  upper  part  of  the  great 
Illinois  coal-field,  and  above  them  lies  a  horizontal  layer  of  sand 
stone,  while  a  seam  of  coal,  eighteen  inches  thick,  is  observed 
about  eighteen  feet  below  the  roots.  Having  borrowed  spades 


CHAP.  XXXV.]    MOVERS  MIGRATING  WESTWARD.  205 

from  the  neighboring  mill,  we  dug  out  the  earth  from  round  one 
of  the  buried  trees,  and  exposed  a  trunk  four  feet  eight  inches 
high,  from  the  bottom  of  which  the  roots  were  seen  spreading 
out  as  in  their  natural  position.  There  were  two  other  fossil 
trees  near  it,  both  apparently  belonging  to  the  same  species  of 
SigiUaria.  The  bark,  converted  into  coal,  displayed  the  scars 
left  by  the  attachment  of  the  leaves,  but  no  internal  structure 
was  preserved  in  the  mud,  now  forming  a  cylindrical  mass  within 
the  bark.  The  diameter  of  the  three  trunks  was  from  18  inches 
to  two  feet,  and  their  roots  were  interlaced.  A  great  number  of 
others,  found  in  like  manner  in  an  erect  posture,  have  been  removed 
in  working  the  same  quarry.  The  fossil  plants  obtained  here  and 
in  other  parts  of  the  Indiana  coal-field,  are  singularly  like  those 
in  other  carboniferous  strata  in  Ohio,  Pennsylvania,  Nova  Scotia, 
and  Europe.  Among  them  occur  species  of  ferns  of  the  genera 
Pecopteris  and  Cydopteris,  and  three  plants,  Neuropteris  flexu- 
osa,  N.  cordata,  and  Lcpidodendron  obovatum,  all  European 
species,  and  common  to  the  Alleghanies  and  Nova  Scotia. 

The  three  large  fossil  trees  above  described  as  newly  exposed 
to  view,  were  standing  erect  under  the  spreading  roots  of  one 
living  oak,  and  it  is  wonderful  to  reflect  on  the  myriads  of  ages 
which  have  intervened  between  the  period  when  the  ancient 
plants  last  saw  the  light,  and  the  era  of  this  modern  forest,  the 
vegetation  of  which  would  scarcely  afford,  except  in  the  case  of 
the  ferns,  any  generic  resemblance,  yet  where  the  trees  are  similar 
in  stature,  upright  attitude,  and  the  general  form  of  their  roots. 

As  we  approached  Evansville,  we  passed  a  German  farm, 
where  horses  were  employed  to  tread  out  the  maize,  and  another 
where  vines  were  cultivated  on  the  side  of  a  hill.  At  one  turn 
of  the  road,  in  the  midst  of  the  wood,  we  met  a  man  with  a  rifle, 
carrying  in  his  hand  an  empty  pail  for  giving  water  to  his  horse, 
and  followed  at  a  short  distance  by  his  wife,  leading  a  steed,  on 
which  was  a  small  sack.  "  It  probably  contains,"  said  our  com 
panions,  "  all  their  worldly  goods  ;  they  are  movers,  and  have 
their  faces  turned  westward,  a  small  detachment  of  that  great 
army  of  emigrants,  which  is  steadily  moving  on  every  year  toward 
the  Pvocky  Mountains.  This  young  married  couple  may  perhaps 


206  VOYAGE  TO  LOUISVILLE.  [CHAP.  XXXV. 

go  down  to  the  Mississippi,  and  buy,  for  a  few  dollars,  some  acres 
of  land,  near  a  wooding  station.  The  husband  will  fell  timber, 
run  up  a  log  cabin,  and  receive  ready  money  from  the  steamboats, 
which  burn  the  wood.  At  the  end  of  ten  or  fifteen  years,  by 
which  time  some  of  their  children  will  have  become  profitable 
servants,  they  may  have  put  by  2000  dollars,  bought  a  farm,  and 
be  living  in  a  frame-house." 

The  very  moment  of  our  arrival  at  Evansville,  a  fine  steam 
boat,  the  Sultana,  came  in  sight,  and  we  found,  among  the  pas 
sengers,  some  agreeable  acquaintances,  whom  we  had  known  at 
New  Orleans  and  Natchez. 

As  some  of  these  large  vessels  are  much  more  expensive  than 
others,  Americans  of  the  richer  class,  when  making  a  long  voyage, 
choose  them  purposely,  as  in  England  we  take  places  in  a  first- 
class  railway  carriage,  that  they  may  be  less  thrown  into  contact 
with  ruder  travelers.  One  of  our  friends,  a  naval  officer,  speaking 
of  the  improvement  of  society  in  the  western  states,  said  that 
dueling  and  drinking  had  greatly  diminished  in  the  last  fifteen 
years.  He  related  one  of  the  strange  scenes  he  had  witnessed  at 
a  dinner-party,  only  a  few  years  ago,  at  the  house  of  a  judge,  in 
a  town  on  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi.  A  quarrel  had  arisen, 
when  one  of  the  guests  took  out  a  pen-knife,  and  stabbed  the  judge 
in  the  side,  so  that  the  blood  spirted  out.  The  judge  himself 
immediately  drew  out  a  bowie  knife,  and  his  antagonist,  at  the 
same  instant,  a  pistol,  and  it  then  appeared  that  every  other 
individual  was  armed  with  knives  or  pistols.  The  narrator 
admitted,  that  as  he  was  traveling,  he  had  also  pistols  upon  him. 
Fortunately  some  cool,  judicious  persons  of  the  party  interposed 
in  time  to  prevent  farther  mischief. 

I  fell  into  conversation  with  an  intelligent  well-dressed  pas 
senger,  who,  as  we  sailed  by  the  town  of  Utica,  in  Indiana,  re 
marked  that  it  was  too  near  the  large  city  of  Louisville  to  thrive 
greatly  ;  and  in  speculating  on  the  future  prospects  of  the  west, 
he  said  that  by  the  census  of  1840,  it  was  proved  that  the  At 
lantic  states  had  about  nine  and  a  half  millions  of  inhabitants, 
while  the  states  lying  west  of  the  mountains,  and^between  the 
great  lakes  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  numbered  about  six  millions 


CHAP.  XXXV.]  FORK  MERCHANT.  207 

four  hundred  thousand.  Now  it  is  believed  that  the  census  of 
1850  will  show  the  population  of  the  whole  country  to  have 
changed  its  center  to  the  west  of  the  mountains,  and  under  a 
system  of  universal  suffrage,  the  center  of  population  becomes  the 
center  of  political  power.  After  having  been  much  interested 
with  the  information  which  I  gained  from  this  companion,  although 
occasionally  struck  with  his  violation  of  the  rules  of  ordinary  good 
manners,  I  was  trying  to  divine  to  what  class  in  society  he  might 
belong,  when  he  began  to  enlarge  on  the  number  of  hogs  killed 
last  year  in  Cincinnati,  which  exceeded  all  former  seasons, 
amounting  to  300,000,  and  to  describe  to  me  how  the  streets, 
in  killing  time,  were  blocked  up  with  barrels  of  salt  pork  for  ex 
portation,  so  that  it  was  not  easy  to  pass  in  a  carriage.  He  then 
asked  me  abruptly,  "  How  many  hogs  do  you  think  I  killed  last 
season?"  Imagining  that  he  might  be  a  farmer,  I  said,  300. 
He  exclaimed,  "  18,000,  and  all  of  them  dispatched  in  thirty-five 
days  !"  He  next  began  to  boast  that  one  of  his  men  could  evis 
cerate  more  hogs  in  one  day  than  any  other  hand  in  Kentucky  ; 
and,  placing  himself  in  the  attitude  of  his  favorite  executioner,  he 
gave  me  such  a  minute  description  of  his  mode  of  operating,  and 
dwelt  on  it  with  so  much  zest,  as  to  make  me  feel  satisfied  that, 
as  Thomas  Diafoirus,  in  the  "  Malade  Imaginaire,"  proposed  to 
treat  his  mistress  with  "  a  dissection,"  so  this  member  of  the 
"  pork  aristocracy"  of  the  west,  would  never  doubt  that  such 
feats  of  professional  dexterity  as  he  loved  to  dilate  upon,  must 
command  the  admiration  of  all  men  who  have  the  slightest  feeling 
for  superior  artistical  skill. 

The  distance  from  Evansville  to  Louisville  was  205  miles, 
and  on  both  sides  of  the  river  were  hills  of  limestone  or  sandstone, 
of  the  coal  formation,  300  feet  high,  frequently  presenting  steep 
and  picturesque  cliffs.  Every  where  I  observed  a^flat  terrace  of 
loam,  or  loess,  bordering  the  river,  sometimes  on  the  side  of  Ken 
tucky,  sometimes  on  that  of  Indiana. 

I  had  found  this  ledge,  both  at  Mount  Vernon  and  at  Evans 
ville,  to  contain  land  and  fresh-water  shells.  At  the  last-men- 
tione  dtown,  where  the  terrace  was  from  twenty  to  thirty  feet  high, 
one  of  the  lower  beds  of  coarse  materials  was  full  of  PalndincB 


208  FOSSIL  CORAL  REEF.  [CHAP.  XXXV. 


and  the  valves  of  a  Unio,  both  of  living  species  ;  yet  with  them 
were  included  in  the  same  gravelly  and  shelly  mass,  the  well- 
preserved  bones  of  the  megalonyx. 

The  coal-measures  had  given  place  to  an  older  series  of  strata, 
the  Devonian,  when  we  reached  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio,  at  Louis 
ville,  where  we  saw  the  river  foaming  over  its  rocky  bed.  I 
first  landed  at  New  Albany,  in  Indiana,  nearly  opposite  Louis 
ville,  that  I  might  visit  Dr.  Clapp,  and  see  his  splendid  collection 
of  fossil  corals.  He  accompanied  me  to  the  bed  of  the  river, 
where,  although  the  water  was  not  at  its  lowest,  I  saw  a  grand 
display  of  what  may  be  termed  an  ancient  coral  reef,  formed  by 
zoophytes,  which  flourished  in  a  sea  of  earlier  date  than  the 
carboniferous  period.  The  ledges  of  horizontal  limestone,  over 
which  the  water  flows,  belong  to  the  old  red  sandstone,  or  De 
vonian  group,  and  the  softer  parts  of  the  stone  have  decomposed 
and  wasted  away,  so  that  the  harder  calcareous  corals  stand  out 
in  relief.  Many  branches  of  these  zoophytes  project  from  their 
erect  stems  precisely  as  if  they  were  living.  Among  other  spe 
cies  I  observed  large  masses,  not  less  than  five  feet  in  diameter, 
of  Favosites  gothlandica,  with  its  beautiful  honeycomb  structure 
well  displayed,  and,  by  the  side  of  it,  the  Favistella,  combining 
a  similar  honeycombed  form  with  the  star  of  the  Astrcea.  There 
was  also  the  cup-shaped  Cyathophyllum,  and  the  delicate  net 
work  of  the  Fcnestella,  and  that  elegant  and  well-known  Euro 
pean  species  of  fossil,  called  "the  chain  coral,"  Catenipora  cscha- 
roides,  with  a  profusion  of  others,  which  it  would  be  tedious  to 
all  but  the  geologist  to  enumerate.  These  coralline  forms  were 
mingled  with  the  joints,  sterns,  and  occasionally  the  heads,  of  lily 
encrinites.  Although  hundreds  of  fine  specimens  have  been  de 
tached  from  these  rocks,  to  enrich  the  museums  of  Europe  and 
America,  another  crop  is  constantly  working  its  way  out,  under 
the  action  of  the  stream,  and  of  the  sun  and  rain,  in  the  warm 
season  when  the  channel  is  laid  dry.  The  waters  are  now 
twenty  feet  above  their  lowest,  and  more  than  forty  feet  below 
their  highest  level,  so  that  large  spaces  of  bare  rock  are  exposed 
to  view. 

On  one  of  the  window-sills  of  Dr.  Clapp's  library  was  displayed 


CHAP.  XXXV.]  FOSSIL  CORAL  REEF.  209 

a  group  of  these  ancient  corals,  and,  in  the  other  window,  a  set 
of  recent  corals  from  the  West  Indian  seas,  of  the  genera  Mean- 
drina,  Astrea,  Madrepora,  and  others ;  some  of  them  as  heavy 
and  stony  as  those  of  older  date,  their  pores,  foramina,  and 
minute  microscopic  structure,  not  being  more  distinctly  preserved. 
No  one  but  a  zoologist  would  have  been  able  to  guess  which  set 
were  of  modern,  and  which  of  ancient  origin.  Yet  so  old  are 
the  fossils,  that  they  are  referable  to  an  era  antecedent  to  the 
Alleghanies,  the  Alps,  and  the  Pyrenees,  nay,  even  to  the  time 
when  by  far  the  greater  part  of  the  materials  composing  these 
mountain-chains  were  slowly  elaborated  beneath  the  ocean. 


CHAPTER  XXXVI. 

Louisville. — Noble  Site  for  a  Commercial  City. — Geology. — Medical  Stu 
dents. — Academical  Rotation  in  Office. — Episcopal  Church. — Preaching 
against  the  Reformation. — Service  in  Black  Methodist  Church. — Im 
proved  Condition  of  Negroes  in  Kentucky. — A  colored  Slave  married  as 
a  free  White. — Voyage  to  Cincinnati. — Naturalized  English  Artisan 
gambling. — Sources  of  Anti-British  Antipathies. — Progress  of  Cincinnati. 
— Increase  of  German  Settlers. — Democracy  of  Romanists. — Geology  of 
Mill  Creek. — Land  Tortoises. — Observatory. — Cultivation  of  the  Vine. — 
Sculpture  by  Hiram  Powers. 

April  5,  1846. — FROM  New  Albany  we. crossed  the  river  to 
Louisville,  the  metropolis  of  Kentucky,  and  found  the  Gait 
House  the  best  hotel  we  had  been  in  since  we  left  the  St.  Louis 
at  New  Orleans.  On  our  way  through  the  streets,  we  saw 
written  in  large  letters,  over  a  smith's  shop,  the  word  "  black- 
smithy,"  and  another  inscription  ran  thus  : — "  Cash  paid  for 
coon,  mink,  wild-cat,  beaver,  musk-rat,  otter,  bear,  wolf,  arid 
deer- skins  ;"  which  reminded  us  that  this  city,  being  the  first 
place  where  large  vessels  coming  up  the  river  are  stopped  by  the 
Falls,  is  the  natural  emporium  for  the  produce  of  the  western 
hunting  grounds.  A  more  noble  site  for  a  great  commercial 
town  can  not  be  imagined ;  and  several  merchants  expressed  to 
me  their  opinion,  that  Cincinnati,  founded  at  a  later  date,  would 
not  have  outstripped  her  rival  in  the  race,  so  as  to  number  now 
a  population  of  nearly  100,000  souls,  more  than  double  that  of 
Louisville,  but  for  the  existence  of  slavery,  and  a  large  negro 
population  in  Kentucky.  Besides  the  disadvantages  always 
arising  from  the  partition  of  a  country  between  two  races,  evils 
which  emancipation  can  not  put  an  end  to,  Kentucky  suffers 
from  the  decided  preference  shown  to  the  right  bank  of  the  river 
by  the  best  class  of  new  settlers  from  the  northeastern  states, 
who  choose  the  free  s-tate  of  Ohio  for  their  residence,  instead  of 
the  slave  state  on  the  left  bank. 


CHAP.  XXXVL]  MEDICAL   STUDENTS.  211 

I  made  a  geological  excursion  with  Dr.  Yandell,  one  of  the 
Professors  of  the  University  of  this  place,  into  the  neighborhood, 
going  to  the  summit  of  a  hill  called  Button-Mould  Knob,  so 
named  from  the  joints  of  encrinites  with  which  the  lower  strata 
of  the  carboniferous  formation  are  charged.  Here  we  enjoyed  a 
wide  prospect  of  the  surrounding  country,  which,,  if  all  the  val 
leys  were  filled  up,  would  form  an  even  table-land,  the  nearly 
horizontal  strata  having  been  evidently  planed  off  at  a  certain 
level  by  the  denuding  action  of  the  sea.  The  valley  of  the  Ohio 
forms  the  principal  break  in  a  region  otherwise  void  of  any  strik 
ing  feature  in  its  natural  scenery.  A  few  spring  flowers  only 
were  to  be  seen,  the  most  plentiful  being  the  Houstonia  and  the 
Claytonia. 

We  went  to  an  evening  party  at  the  house  of  one  of  the  Pro 
fessors  of  the  University,  and  met  many  of  his  colleagues,  and 
some  medical  students.  Two  of  the  latter  informed  me,  that 
they  had  been  sent  to  London  to  finish  their  course  of  study, 
having  been  brought  up  to  feel  great  respect  and  veneration  for 
English  educational  establishments.  They  had  been  received 
kindly  and  politely  by  the  professors,  but  the  prejudices  of  the 
majority  of  their  fellow  pupils  against  the  institutions  of  the 
United  States,  and  still  more  their  rude  remarks  about  the  vul 
garity  of  all  Americans  (of  whom  they  knew  scarcely  any  thing), 
had  so  wounded  their  national  feelings,  that  they  had  written 
home  to  entreat  their  parents  to  allow  them  to  attend  classes  at 
Paris,  or  in  some  German  University,  to  which  they  had  reluct 
antly  assented.  These  young  men,  being  of  good  families  in 
Kentucky,  were  gentlemanlike  in  their  manners,  in  this  respect 
decidedly  above  the  average  standard  of  students  of  the  same 
profession  in  England,  and  they  spoke  with  no  bitterness  even  on 
this  annoying  topic.  Talking  over  academical  matters,  some 
elders  of  the  company  complained  of  the  wish  of  the  democratic 
party  to  apply  their  favorite  dogma  of  "  rotation  in  office,"  or, 
"  le.t  every  man  have  his  turn,"  not  only  to  members  of  the 
executive  and  the  election  of  judges,  but  actually  to  University 
professors.  "You  may  amuse  your  countrymen,"  said  they,  "on 
your  return,  by  telling  them  of  the  wisdom  of  our  sovereign  rulers, 


CHAPTER  XXXVI. 

Louisville. — Noble  Site  for  a  Commercial  City. — Geology. — Medical  Stu 
dents. — Academical  Rotation  in  Office. — Episcopal  Church. — Preaching 
against  the  Reformation. — Service  in  Black  Methodist  Church. — Im 
proved  Condition  of  Negroes  in  Kentucky. — A  colored  Slave  married  as 
a  free  White. — Voyage  to  Cincinnati. — Naturalized  English  Artisan 
gambling. — Sources  of  Anti-British  Antipathies. — Progress  of  Cincinnati. 
— Increase  of  German  Settlers. — Democracy  of  Romanists. — Geology  of 
Mill  Creek. — Land  Tortoises. — Observatory. — Cultivation  of  the  Vine. — 
Sculpture  by  Hiram  Powers. 

April  5,  1846. — FROM  New  Albany  we.crossed  the  river  to 
Louisville,  the  metropolis  of  Kentucky,  and  found  the  Gait 
House  the  best  hotel  we  had  been  in  since  we  left  the  St.  Louis 
at  New  Orleans.  On  our  way  through  the  streets,  we  saw 
written  in  large  letters,  over  a  smith's  shop,  the  word  "  black- 
smithy,"  and  another  inscription  ran  thus  : — "  Cash  paid  for 
coon,  mink,  wild-cat,  beaver,  musk-rat,  otter,  bear,  wolf,  arid 
deer- skins  ;"  which  reminded  us  that  this  city,  being  the  first 
place  where  large  vessels  coming  up  the  river  are  stopped  by  the 
Falls,  is  the  natural  emporium  for  the  produce  of  the  western 
hunting  grounds.  A  more  noble  site  for  a  great  commercial 
town  can  not  be  imagined ;  and  several  merchants  expressed  to 
me  their  opinion,  that  Cincinnati,  founded  at  a  later  date,  would 
not  have  outstripped  her  rival  in  the  race,  so  as  to  number  now 
a  population  of  nearly  100,000  souls,  more  than  double  that  of 
Louisville,  but  for  the  existence  of  slavery,  and  a  large  negro 
population  in  Kentucky.  Besides  the  disadvantages  always 
arising  from  the  partition  of  a  country  between  two  races,  evils 
which  emancipation  can  not  put  an  end  to,  Kentucky  suffers 
from  the  decided  preference  shown  to  the  right  bank  of  the  river 
by  the  best  class  of  new  settlers  from  the  northeastern  states, 
who  choose  the  free  state  of  Ohio  for  their  residence,  instead  of 
the  slave  state  on  the  left  bank. 


CHAP.  XXXVI. ]  MEDICAL   STUDENTS.  211 

I  made  a  geological  excursion  with  Dr.  Yandell,  one  of  the 
Professors  of  the  University  of  this  place,  into  the  neighborhood, 
going  to  the  summit  of  a  hill  called  Button-Mould  Knob,  so 
named  from  the  joints  of  encrinites  with  which  the  lower  strata 
of  the  carboniferous  formation  are  charged.  Here  we  enjoyed  a 
wide  prospect  of  the  surrounding  country,  which,,  if  all  the  val 
leys  were  filled  up,  would  form  an  even  table-land,  the  nearly 
horizontal  strata  having  been  evidently  planed  off  at  a  certain 
level  by  the  denuding  action  of  the  sea.  The  valley  of  the  Ohio 
forms  the  principal  break  in  a  region  otherwise  void  of  any  strik 
ing  feature  in  its  natural  scenery.  A  few  spring  flowers  only 
were  to  be  s-een,  the  most  plentiful  being  the  Houstonia  and  the 
Claytonia. 

We  went  to  an  evening  party  at  the  house  of  one  of  the  Pro 
fessors  of  the  University,  and  met  many  of  his  colleagues,  and 
some  medical  students.  Two  of  the  latter  informed  me,  that 
they  had  been  sent  to  London  to  finish  their  course  of  study, 
having  been  brought  up  to  feel  great  respect  and  veneration  for 
English  educational  establishments.  They  had  been  received 
kindly  and  politely  by  the  professors,  but  the  prejudices  of  the 
majority  of  their  fellow  pupils  against  the  institutions  of  the 
United  States,  and  still  more  their  rude  remarks  about  the  vul 
garity  of  all  Americans  (of  whom  they  knew  scarcely  any  thing), 
had  so  wounded  their  national  feelings,  that  they  had  written 
home  to  entreat  their  parents  to  allow  them  to  attend  classes  at 
Paris,  or  in  some  German  University,  to  which  they  had  reluct 
antly  assented.  These  young  men,  being  of  good  families  in 
Kentucky,  were  gentlemanlike  in  their  manners,  in  this  respect 
decidedly  above  the  average  standard  of  students  of  the  same 
profession  in  England,  and  they  spoke  with  no  bitterness  even  on 
this  annoying  topic.  Talking  over  academical  matters,  some 
elders  of  the  company  complained  of  the  wish  of  the  democratic 
party  to  apply  their  favorite  dogma  of  "  rotation  in  office,"  or, 
"  let  every  man  have  his  turn,"  not  only  to  members  of  the 
executive  and  the  election  of  judges,  but  actually  to  University 
professors.  "You  may  amuse  your  countrymen,"  said  they,  "on 
your  return,  by  telling  them  of  the  wisdom  of  our  sovereign  rulers, 


212  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH.  [CHAP.  XXXVJ. 

who  would  shorten  to  a  minimum  the  term  of  service  even  of 
men  who  fill  literary  or  scientific  chairs."  I  informed  them 
that  nearly  the  whole  University  lectures  at  Oxford  and  Cam 
bridge,  had  of  late  years,  in  opposition  to  earlier  usage,  been 
transferred  to  temporary  occupants  of  tutorships,  who  looked  for 
ward  to  the  resigning  of  their  academical  functions  as  soon  as 
they  could  afford  to  marry,  or  could  obtain  church  preferment  ; 
so  that  the  extreme  democracy  of  Kentucky  would  at  least  have 
no  claim  to  originality,  should  they  apply  their  maxim  of  rotation 
in  office  to  a  body  of  academical  lecturers. 

On  Sunday  we  attended  service  in  an  Episcopal  church.  The 
young  preacher  dwelt  largely  on  the  supreme  authority  of  the 
Church,  and  lamented  that  many  dogmas  and  pious  usages, 
which  had  received  the  unbroken  sanction  of  fifteen  centuries, 
should  have  been  presumptuously  set  at  naught  by  the  rebellious 
spirit  of  the  sixteenth  century,  the  great  intellectual  movement 
of  which  he  described  as  marked  by  two  characteristics,  "  non 
sense  and  philosophy  ;"  nor  was  it  easy  to  discover  which  of 
these  two  influences,  in  their  reference  to  matters  ecclesiastical, 
were  most  evil  in  his  sight.  After  a  long  dissertation  in  this 
strain,  he  called  up  to  him  a  number  of  intelligent  looking  young 
girls  to  be  catechized,  and  I  never  saw  a  set  of  children  with 
more  agreeable  or  animated  countenances,  or  who  displayed  more 
of  that  modest  reverence  and  entire,  unreflecting  trust  in  their 
teacher,  which  it  is  so  pleasing  to  see  in  young  pupils.  That 
some  of  the  questions  should  have  reference  to  the  doctrines  just 
laid  down  in  the  preceding  discourse  was  to  be  expected.  One 
of  the  last  interrogatories,  "  Who  wrote  the  Prayer-book?"  puz 
zled  the  whole  class.  After  waiting  in  vain  for  an  answer,  the 
minister  exclaimed,  "  Your  mother  ;"  and  made  a  short  pause, 
during  which  I  saw  the  girls  exchange  quick  glances,  and  I 
found  time  to  imagine  that  each  might  be  exclaiming  mentally 
to  herself,  "  Can  he  mean  my  mother  ?"  when  he  added,  in  a 
solemn  and  emphatic  tone,  "  Your  mother,  the  Church  !"  Had 
his  congregation  belonged  to  any  other  than  the  Anglican  Church, 
I  might  simply  have  felt  regret  and  melancholy  at  much  that  I 
had  witnessed  ;  as  it  was,  I  came  out  of  the  church  in  a  state  of 


CHAP.  XXXVL]      BLACK  METHODIST  CHUCRH.  213 

no  small  indignation.  I  had  heard,  in  the  course  of  my  travels, 
several  discourses  equally  at  variance  with  the  spirit  of  the 
Reformation,  but  none  before  in  which  the  Reformation  itself 
was  so  openly  denounced,  and  I  could  not  help  reflecting  on  the 
worldly  wisdom  of  those  who,  wishing  in  the  middle  of  the  nine 
teenth  century,  to  unprotestantize  the  members  of  a  reformed 
church,  begin  their  work  at  an  age  when  the  mind  is  yet  un 
formed  and  plastic — dealing  with  the  interior  of  the  skull  as 
certain  Indian  mothers  dealt  with  its  exterior,  when  they  bound 
it  between  flat  boards,  and  caused  it  to  grow,  not  as  nature 
intended,  but  into  a  shape  which  suited  the  fashion  of  their  tribe. 
In  the  evening  we  were  taken,  at  our  request,  to  a  black 
Methodist  church,  where  our  party  were  the  only  whites  in  a 
congregation  of  about  400.  There  was  nothing  offensive  in  the 
atmosphere  of  the  place,  and  I  learned,  with  pleasure,  that  this 
commodious  building  was  erected  and  lighted  with  gas  by  the 
blacks  themselves,  aided  by  subscriptions  from  many  whites  of 
different  sects.  The  preacher  was  a  full  black,  spoke  good  En 
glish,  and  quoted  Scripture  well.  Occasionally  he  laid  down 
some  mysterious  and  metaphysical  points  of  doctrine  with  a  dog 
matic  air,  and  with  a  vehement  confidence,  which  seemed  to  increase 
in  proportion  as  the  subjects  transcended  the  human  understand 
ing,  at  which  moments  he  occasionally  elicited  from  his  sympa 
thizing  hearers,  especially  from  some  of  the  women,  exclama 
tions  such  as  "  That  is  true,"  and  other  signs  of  assent,  but  no 
loud  cries  and  sobs,  such  as  I  had  heard  in  a  white  Methodist 
church  in  Montgomery,  Alabama.  It  appeared  from  his  explan 
ation  of  "  Whose  superscription  is  this  ?"  that  he  supposed  the 
piece  of  money  to  be  a  dollar  note,  to  which  Caesar  had  put  his 
signature.  He  spoke  of  our  ancestors  in  the  garden  of  Eden  in 
a  manner  that  left  no  doubt  of  his  agreeing  with  Dr.  Prichard, 
that  we  all  came  from  one  pair — a  theory  to  which,  for  my  own 
part,  I  could  never  see  any  ethnological  or  physiological  objection, 
provided  time  enough  be  allowed  for  the  slow  growth  of  races  ; 
though  I  once  heard  Mr.  A.  W.  Schlegel,  at  Bonn,  pronounce  it 
to  be  a  heresy,  especially  in  an  Englishman  who  had  read  the 
"  Paradise  Lost."  "  I  could  have  pardoned  Prichard,"  said  the 


214  BLACK  PREACHER.  [CHAP.  XXXVI. 

Professor,  "  for  believing  that  Adam  was  the  forefather  of  all  the 
Africans,  had  he  only  conceded  that  « the  fairest  of  her  daughters, 
Eve,'  never  could  have  been  a  negress." 

Toward  the  close  of  the  discourse,  the  minister  said  "  that  a 
protracted  meeting  would  soon  be  held  ;  but  such  assemblies 
were,  in  his  judgment,  becoming  too  frequent."  He  also  an 
nounced  that  on  Easter  Sunday  there  would  be  a  love-feast, 
which  no  doubt  would  be  very  crowded,  "  and  where  I  hope  you 
will  all  enjoy  yourselves."  He  then  said,  "  Sirs  and  Madams,  I 
have  now  to  warn  you  of  a  serious  matter,  but  I  see  many  of 
you  are  nodding,  and  let  every  one  wake  up  his  neighbor.  The 
sexton,  poor  man,  has  more  than  he  can  do."  This  official,  by 
the  way,  had  been  administering  with  his  cane  many  admonitory 
taps  on  the  heads  of  the  younger  part  of  the  congregation,  such 
as  must  have  precluded  them  from  napping  for  some  time,  if 
their  skulls  are  not  harder  than  those  of  their  white  brethren. 
There  was  a  general  stir,  and  two  fat  negro  women,  between 
whom  my  wife  was  wedged  in  (for  the  two  sexes  sat  on  separate 
sides),  looked  to  see  if  she  was  awake.  "  There  is  a  storm 
brewing,"  said  the  preacher,  "owing  to  some  late  doings  in  Ohio, 
and  I  hope  that  none  of  the  membership  will  get  themselves  into 
a  scrape."  The  exciting  topic  on  which  he  then  enlarged  was 
the  late  seizure,  or  kidnaping,  as  it  was  termed,  of  Jerry  Phin- 
ney,  who,  after  residing  some  years  in  Ohio,  had  been  reclaimed 
by  the  heirs  of  his  owners,  in  consequence  of  some  flaw  in  his 
letters  of  freedom,  and  brought  back  to  Kentucky.  An  attempt 
at  a  rescue  was  for  a  time  apprehended,  but  500  dollars  were 
soon  raised  and  paid  to  secure  his  release. 

When  I  commended  the  action  of  the  black  preacher  as  grace 
ful,  I  was  assured  that  he  had  successfully  imitated  an  eminent 
American  player  who  had  lately  performed  at  Louisville.  «  These 
blacks,"  said  my  informant,  "  are  such  inimitable  mimics,  that 
they  will  sometimes  go  through  a  whole  sermon  in  the  same 
style  as  they  have  heard  delivered  by  a  white  man,  only  appear 
ing  somewhat  to  caricature  it,  because  they  are  more  pompous 
and  declamatory  ;  which  in  them  is  quite  natural,  for  they  are  a 
more  demonstrative  race  than  we  are.  If  he  addresses  them  in 


CHAP.  XXXVI.]  NEGROES  IN  KENTUCKY.  215 

a  plain,  colloquial  manner,  his  sermon  would  seem  tame,  and 
make  no  impression.  They  can  not  talk  about  the  price  of  a 
pair  of  shoes,  or  quid  of  tobacco,  without  such  gesticulations  that 
you  would  fancy  it  was  a  matter  of  life  and  death  they  were 
discussing."  There  was  a  second  colored  man  in  the  pulpit, 
who  delivered  a  prayer  with  a  strong  nasal  twang,  and  very 
extravagant  action.  The  hymns  were  some  of  them  in  rather  a 
wild  strain,  but,  on  the  whole,  not  unmusical. 

I  learnt  that  the  domestic  servants  of  Louisville,  who  are 
chiefly  of  negro  race,  belong  very  commonly  to  a  different  church 
from  their  owners.  During  our  short  stay  here,  an  instance  came 
to  my  knowledge  of  ofmaster  who,  having  an  untractable  black 
servant,  appealed  to  a  ne*gro  minister,  not  of  his  own  church,  to 
interfere  and  reprove  him  for  his  bad  conduct,  a  measure  which 
completely  succeeded.  We  were  told  of  four  Sunday  schools  for 
colored  people  in  the  city,  and  in  one  of  them  170  children 
receive  instruction.  There  are  also  other  schools  on  week  days 
for  teaching  negroes  to  read,  both  in  Kentucky  and  Tennessee. 
When  I  communicated  these  facts  to  Americans  in  Philadelphia, 
they  were  inclined  to  be  incredulous,  and  then  said,  "  If  such  be 
the  condition  of  negroes  in  Kentucky,  they  must  be  better  off  in 
slave  states  than  in  others  called  free  ;  but  you  must  not  forget 
that  their  most  worthless  runaways  take  refuge  with  us." 

A  recent  occurrence  in  Louisville  places  in  a  strong  light  the 
unnatural  relation  in  which  the  two  races  now  stand  to  each 
other.  One  of  the  citizens,  a  respectable  tradesman,  became 
attached  to  a  young  seamstress,  who  had  been  working  at  his 
mother's  house,  and  married  her,  in  the  full  belief  that  she  was 
a  white,  and  a  free  woman.  He  had  lived  happily  with  her  for 
some  time,  when  it  was  discovered  that  she  was  a  negress  and  a 
slave,  who  had  never  been  legally  emancipated,  so  that  the  mar 
riage  was  void  in  law.  Morally  speaking,  it  was  certainly  not 
void  ;  yet  a  separation  was  thought  so  much  a  matter  of  course, 
that  I  heard  the  young  man's  generosity  commended  because  he 
had  purchased  her  freedom  after  the  discovery,  and  given  her  the 
means  of  setting  up  as  a  dressmaker.  No  doubt  the  lady  knew 
that  she  was  not  of  pure  blood,  and  we  were  told  that  only  six 


216  VOYAGE  TO  CINCINNATI.  [CHAP.  XXXVL 

years  before  she  had  run  away  from  her  owner.  She  had  also 
concealed  this  fact  from  her  lover,  but  at  a  time,  probably,  when 
her  affections  were  deeply  engaged.  On  the  other  hand,  we  may 
pity  the  husband  who  suddenly  finds  that  he  is  disgraced  by 
having  made  an  unlawful  marriage,  that  his  children  are  illegit 
imate,  and  that  the  wife  of  his  choice  belongs  to  an  inferior  caste 
}n  society.  This  incident  is  important  in  many  points  of  view, 
and  especially  as  proving  to  what  an  extent  the  amalgamation 
of  the  two  races  would  take  place,  if  it  were  not  checked  by 
artificial  prejudices  and  the  most  jealous  and  severe  enactments 
of  law.  I  found  that  many  here  believe  and  hope  that  the  time 
of  emancipation  is  near  at  hand  ;  but  I  was  sorry  to  discover  that 
the  most  sagacious  seemed  to  think  that  the  blacks  in  these  mid 
dle  states  will  not  be  able  to  stand  alone  when  no  longer  protected 
by  enjoying  the  monopoly  of  the  labor  market. 

April  7. — Sailed  in  the  Ben  Franklin  steamer  from  Louisville 
to  Cincinnati,  a  distance  by  the  river  of  130  miles.  The  scenery 
much  resembled  that  below  the  Falls ;  the  valley  of  the  Ohio  being 
bounded  by  flat-topped  hills,  200  or  300  feet  high,  formed  of  hor 
izontal  beds  of  sandstone  or  limestone,  with  steep  slopes  or  cliffs 
toward  the  river,  and  at  the  base  of  these  a  flat  terrace  of  gravel 
or  loam  on  one  or  both  sides  of  the  Ohio,  above  high- water  mark. 

We  made  twelve  miles  an  hour  against  the  stream,  and  if  we 
were  descending,  the  captain  says,  we  should  go  at  the  rate  of 
eighteen  miles  an  hour.  Among  the  passengers  I  saw  a  thin, 
sallow-faced,  anxious  looking  artisan,  whom  I  mistook  for  a  na 
tive-born  Yankee,  holding  forth  to  a  small  circle  of  idlers  about 
"  our  revolution"  and  "  our  glorious  victories  over  the  British," 
and  calling  upon  all  to  prove  themselves  "true  Democrats." 
Soon  after  we  started  I  saw  him  take  a  dram,  and  then  sitting 
down  to  cards  lose  sixty  dollars  in  half  an  hour.  The  officers 
of  the  ship,  observing  this  transaction,  interfered,  and  put  a  stop 
to  the  game,  giving  orders  to  the  steward  not  to  sell  any  more 
brandy  to  this  passenger.  I  afterward  learnt  that  he  was  an 
Englishman,  a  skillful,  first-rate  mechanic  in  the  iron  trade  at 
Pittsburg,  who  had  come  out  from  Liverpool  about  sixteen  years 
ago.  After  drinking  and  losing  all  his  earnings  at  the  gaming 


CHAP.  XXXVI. ]       ANTI-BRITISH  ANTIPATHIES.  i>\7 

table,  he  has  returned  again  and  again  to  work,  and  can  always 
command  high  wages.  He  has  read  up  the  history  of  the 
American  revolution,  and  at  an  election  can  harangue  a  mob  of 
newly  come  emigrants  with  great  effect,  and  with  all  the  author 
ity  of  a  native,  assuming  a  tone  of  intense  nationality.  On  other 
occasions  I  had  met  with  a  naturalized  Englishman  of  a  different 
stamp,  who  might  equally  be  described  as  "ipsis  Americanis  Ame- 
ricanior,"  one  who,  having  been  born  in  the  middle  classes,  has 
gone  over  early  in  life  to  the  New  World,  where  he  has  succeeded 
in  business,  risen  to  a  good  social  position,  and  given  his  children 
an  excellent  education.  He  then  goes  back  to  visit  the  "  old 
country,"  and  see  his  friends  and  relatives,  and  is  surprised  and 
mortified  that  they  are  separated  by  so  great  a  gulf  from  the 
higher  classes,  greater  than  exists  between  the  humblest  and 
most  elevated  in  his  adopted  country.  He  finds,  also,  the 
religious  sect  to  which  he  and  his  kindred  belong,  only  tolerated, 
and  not  standing  on  the  same  footing  of  "gentility"  as  the  domi 
nant  church.  His  sectarian  zeal,  his  feelings  of  social  pride,  and 
his  political  principles  are  all  up  in  arms,  and  he  comes  back  to 
America  far  more  patriotic  and  more  of  an  optimist  than  any 
native.  If  he  then  ventures  to  enter  on  the  political  arena,  his 
opponents  warn  the  electors  against  one  who  is  an  alien  by  birth 
and  feeling,  and,  in  his  efforts  to  disprove  such  imputations,  he 
reaches  the  climax  of  anti-British  antipathy. 

Such  citizens  were  unaffectedly  incapable  of  comprehending 
that  I  could  have  seen  so  much  of  the  Union,  and  yet  have  JLO 
wish  whatever  to  live  there.  Instead  of  asking,  "  Would  you 
not  like  to  settle  here  ?"  it  would  be  more  prudent  for  them  to 
shape  their  question  thus  :  "  If  you  were  to  be  born  over  again,  and 
take  your  chance,  by  lot,  as  to  your  station  in  society,  what  coun 
try  would  you  prefer  ?"  Before  choosing,  I  should  then  have  to 
consider,  that  the  chances  are  many  thousands  to  one  in  favor  of 
my  belonging  to  the  laboring  class,  and  the  land  where  they  are 
best  off,  morally,  physically,  and  intellectually,  and  where  they 
are  most  progressive,  would  be  the  safest  one  to  select.  Such 
being  the  proposition,  the  Free  States  of  the  Union  might  well 
claim  a  preference, 
VOL.  ii. — K 


2lf!  PROGRESS  OF  CINCINNATI.         [CHAP.  XXXVI. 

Every  town  we  had  visited  in  the  last  three  months,  since  we 
left  Savannah,  in  January,  was  new  to  us,  and  Cincinnati  was 
the  first  place  where  we  were  able  to  compare  the  present  state 
of  things  with  that  observed  by  us  in  the  summer  of  1842.      In 
this  short  interval  of  four  years,  great  improvements  in  the  build 
ings,  streets,  and  shops  were  visible ;  a  vast  increase  of  population, 
and  many  additional  churches,  and  new  cotton  factories.      The 
soil  of  the  country  immediately  behind  the  town  is  rich,  and  there 
is  an  ample  supply  of  laborers,  partly  indeed  because  the  Catholic 
priests  strive  to  retain  in  the  city  all  the  German  emigrants. 
Although  they  are  industrious  and  thrifty,  such  an  arrangement 
is  by  no  means  the  best  for  promoting  the  progress  of  Ohio,  or 
her  metropolis  ;   for,  next  to  having  an  "Irish  quarter,"  a  "Ger 
man  quarter"  in  a  large  city  is  most  undesirable.      The  priests, 
no  doubt,  judge  rightly,  both  in  reference  to  their  notions  of  dis 
cipline,  and  with  a  view  of  maintaining  their  power  ;  for  these 
peasants,  when  scattered  over  the  country,  and  interspersed  with 
Protestants,  can  not  be  made  to  confess  regularly,  attend  mass, 
and  read  orthodox  German  newspapers,  three  of  which  are  pub- 
blished  here  daily,  and  one  weekly,  all  under  ecclesiastical  cen 
sorship.      There  are  a  large  number  of  German  Protestants,  and 
20.000    Catholics,  in  all  twelve  churches,  where  the  service  is 
performed  in  the    German   language.      Only  half  of  these  are 
Romanist  churches,  but  they  are  much  more  crowded  than  the 
others.      The  chief  emigration  has  been  from  Bavaria,  Baden, 
Swabia,  Wirtemberg,  and  the  Black  Forest,  and  they  are  almost 
all  imbued  with  extreme  democratic  notions,  which  the  ordinary 
European  training,  or  the  working  of  semi-feudal   institutions, 
evidently  fosters  in  the  minds  of  the  million,  far  more  than  does 
the  republicanism  of  the  United  States.      The  Romanist  priests 
feel,  or  affect,  sympathy  with  this  political  party,  and  in  the  last 
election  they  instructed  the  Germans  and  the  Irish  to  vote  for 
Polk  against  Clay.      It  ought,  indeed,  to  serve  as  a  warning, 
and    afford   serious   matter  of  reflection   to   the   republicans   of 
America,  that  a  church  which  requires  the  prostration  of  the 
intellect  in  matters  of  faith  and  discipline,   and  which  is  most 
ambitious  of  wordly  power,  is  also  of  all  others  the  most  willing 


CHAP.  XXXVI.J         GEOLOGY  OF  MILL  CREEK.  019 

to  co-operate  with  the  ultra-democratic  party.  Are  the  priests 
conscious  of  having  embarked  in  a  common  cause  with  the  dema 
gogue,  and  that  they  must,  like  him,  derive  their  influence  from 
courting  the  passions,  prejudices,  and  ignorance  of  the  people  ? 
If  so,  one  method  alone  remains  for  combating  both — the  removal 
of  ignorance  by  a  well-organized  government  system  of  schools, 
neither  under  sectarian  or  ecclesiastical  control,  nor  under  the 
management  of  any  one  political  party. 

In  the  city,  the  New  Englanders  appeared  to  me  to  have  lost 
political  weight  since  we  were  last  here.  To  show  me  how 
seriously  the  priests  interfere  in  their  domestic  affairs,  a  bookseller 
told  me  that  he  had  just  lost  the  services  of  a  young  shopman 
who,  although  a  Protestant,  like  his  father,  found  that  his  mother, 
a  Catholic,  considered  it  her  duty  never  to  let  him  rest  till  he 
adopted  some  other  profession.  The  priest  had  told  her  that  he 
was  constantly  handling  dangerous  and  heretical  books  in  his  store, 
with  which  his  mind  must  be  contaminated. 

In  many  of  the  large  towns,  in  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi, 
the  Catholics  have  established  such  excellent  schools,  and  enforced 
discipline  so  well,  that  the  children  of  Protestants  have  been  at 
tracted  there,  and  many  have  become  proselytes ;  but  I  heard  of 
still  more  Catholics  who  have  become  converts  to  Protestantism, 
and  I  can  not  but  believe  that  Romanism  itself  will  undergo  many 
salutary  modifications  under  the  influence  of  the  institutions  of  this 
country. 

I  made  an  excursion  with  Messrs.  Buchanan,  James,  Carley, 
Clark,  and  Anthony,  to  Mill  Creek,  a  tributary  valley  of  the 
Ohio,  where  loam  and  gravel,  with  fresh-water  shells,  overlies  a 
deposit  of  leaves  and  fossil  stems  of  trees.  The  shells  are  of  recent 
species,  and  the  layer  of  vegetable  matter  of  the  same  age  as  that 
which  contains  the  bones  of  the  mastodon,  elephant,  megalonyx, 
and  other  extinct  animals  at  Big  Bone  Lick,  in  Kentucky.*  I 
afterward  saw  in  the  city  some  beautiful  collections  of  Silurian 
fossils  from  the  blue  limestone,  and  was  struck  with  the  dimen 
sions  of  some  of  the  trilobites  of  the  genus  Isoteles,  the  most 

*  See  ante,  p.  194,  and  "Travels  in  North  America,"  vol.  ii.  pp.  62, 
65,  67. 


222  SCULPTURE  BY  POWERS.  [CHAP.  XXXVI. 

their  veins  ;  they  confessed  themselves  unable  to  guess,  for  the 
two  girls  were  not  only  among  the  best  scholars,  but  better  look 
ing  and  less  dark  than  many  of  the  other  pupils. 

At  Mr.  Longworth's  we  saw  a  beautiful  piece  of  sculpture,  an 
ideal  head  called  Ginevra,  by  Hiram  Powers,  who  had  sent  it 
from  Rome  as  a  present  to  his  first  patron.  It  appeared  to  me 
worthy  of  the  genius  of  the  sculptor  of  "  Eve"  and  the  "  Greek 
Slave."  Thorwaldsen,  when  he  saw  Powers'  "  Eve,"  foretold 
that  he  would  create  an  era  in  his  art  ;  and  not  a  few  of  the 
Italians  now  assign  to  him  the  first  place  in  the  "  Naturalista" 
school,  though  assuredly  there  is  much  of  the  ideal  also  in  his 
conceptions  of  the  beautiful.  It  augurs  well  for  the  future  culti 
vation  of  the  fine  arts  in  the  United  States,  that  the  Americans 
are  as  proud  of  their  countryman's  success  as  he  himself  could 
desire. 


CHAPTER  XXXVII. 

Cincinnati  to  Pittsburg. — Improved  Machinery  of  Steamer. — Indian  Mound. 
— Gravel  Terraces. — Pittsburg  Fire. — Journey  to  Greensburg. — Scenery 
like  England. —  Oregon  War  Question. — Fossil  Foot-prints  of  Air-breath 
ing  Reptile  in  Coal  Strata. — Casts  of  Mud-cracks. — Foot-prints  of  Birds 
and  Dogs  sculptured  by  Indians. — Theories  respecting  the  Geological 
Antiquity  of  highly  organized  Vertebrata. — Prejudices  opposed  to  the 
Reception  of  Geological  Truths. — Popular  Education  the  only  Means  of 
pi-eventing  a  Collision  of  Opinion  between  the  Multitude  and  the  Learned. 

April  13,  1846. — FROM  Cincinnati  we  embarked  in  the  Clip 
per  steamer  for  Pittsburg,  a  distance  of  no  less  than  450  miles  ; 
so  magnificent  is  the  scale  of  the  navigation  of  this  mere  tribu 
tary  of  the  Mississippi !  Yet  there  are  other  large  steamers  also 
plying  above  Pittsburg,  on  the  tributaries  of  the  Ohio.  We  ob 
serve  more  punctuality  than  in  1842,  in  the  starting  of  the  steam 
ers.  The  Clipper  made  ten  miles  an  hour  against  the  current, 
including  stoppages.  We  fell  in  with  some  large  artificial  rails 
of  wood  stretching  more  than  half  across  the  river,  and  met  a 
steamer,  which  had  run  foul  of  one  of  them,  still  entangled,  and, 
though  bound  for  Pittsburg,  floating  down  the  stream  with  the 
raft.  Our  steamer  only  draws  3^  feet  water,  and  her  engines 
are  of  a  very  peculiar  construction,  hitherto  used  in  sea-boats  only, 
with  the  exception  of  one  on  Lake  Erie.  The  inventor  of  this 
improvement  is  Thomas  K.  Litch.  There  are  two  cylinders,  one 
twice  the  size  of  the  other,  and  the  steam  escapes  from  the  smaller 
into  the  larger,  instead  of  issuing  into  the  open  air,  so  that  its 
heat  is  not  lost.  The  economy  of  fuel  arising  from  this  contriv 
ance  is  great,  and  the  vibrations  and  noise  much  less  than  in 
other  boats  on  the  same  high-pressure  principle.  In  place  of  the 
usual  bell,  signals  are  made  by  a  wild  and  harsh  scream,  pro 
duced  by  the  escape  of  steam,  as  in  locomotive  engines  ;  a  fear 
ful  sound  in  the  night,  and  which,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  some  ma 
chinist  who  has  an  ear  for  music  will  find  means  to  modulate. 


GRAVEL  TERRACES.  [CHAP.  XXXVII. 


There  was  a  Pennsylvania!!  farmer  on  board  who  told  me  that, 
having  a  large  family  to  provide  for,  he  had  resolved  to  settle  in 
Indiana,  and  was  returning  from  that  state,  after  making  a  pur 
chase  of  land  in  "the  rolling  prairies."  He  had  paid  the  usual 
government  price  of  11  dollar,  or  about  5s.  Qd.  an  acre  ;  whereas 
he  could  sell  his  own  property  in  Pennsylvania,  which  had  a  house 
on  it,  at  the  rate  of  60  dollars  an  acre.  He  had  been  much  con 
cerned  at  finding  a  strong  war  party  in  the  west,  who  were 
eager  to  have  a  brush  with  the  English.  "  It  was  a  short-sighted 
policy,"  he  remarked,  "  in  your  country,  to  exert  so  little  energy 
and  put  forth  so  small  a  part  of  her  strength  in  the  last  war  with 
the  United  States.  It  will  one  day  involve  both  you  and  us  in 
serious  mischief." 

At  a  point  about  twenty-four  miles  below  Wheeling,  we  came 
to  the  largest  of  the  Indian  mounds  on  the  Ohio,  of  which  I  have 
spoken  in  my  former  "Travels."^  It  is  between  60  and  70 
feet  high,  rising  from  a  flat  terrace  of  loam,  and  a  very  striking 
object,  reminding  one,  by  its  shape,  of  the  pyramidal  Teocallis  of 
the  ancient  Mexicans,  of  which  Humboldt  has  given  figures,  and 
which  are  so  well  described  by  Prescott,  in  his  "  History  of  Cor 
tes."  As  we  approached  Wheeling,  the  valley  of  the  Ohio  be 
came  narrower,  and  the  hills,  composed  of  strata  of  the  coal  form 
ation,  sensibly  higher.  The  State  of  Ohio  was  on  our  left  hand, 
or  the  northern  bank  of  the  river,  and  that  of  Virginia  on  our 
right.  The  flat  terrace  of  loam  and  gravel,  extending  every 
where  from  the  base  of  the  hills  to  the  river's  bank,  forms  a  pic 
turesque  contrast  to  the  steep  slope  of  the  boundary  hills,  clothed 
partly  with  ancient  timber,  and  partly  with  a  second  growth  of 
trees  of  less  height,  which  has  sprung  up  where  clearings  have 
been  made.  It  is  worthy  of  remark,  that  the  materials  of  the 
great  terrace  of  loam  and  gravel  become  more  and  more  coarse 
as  we  approach  nearer  the  mountains  between  Wheeling  and 
Pittsburg,  and  at  the  same  time  the  terrace  itself  is  more  and 
more  elevated  above  the  level  of  the  river.  It  appeared  to  be 
about  60  feet  high  near  the  mouth  of  the  Great  Kanawha,  and 
about  80  feet  high  at  Georgetown,  40  miles  below  Pittsburg, 
*  Vol.  ii.  p.  32. 


CHAP.  XXXVII.]  PITTSBURG  FIRE.  225 

which  I  can  only  explain  by  reference  to  the  theory  before  ad 
vanced  ;*  namely,  by  supposing  the  amount  of  subsidence,  as  well 
as  of  the  subsequent  upward  movement,  to  have  been  greater 
inland,  or  farther  north,  than  in  the  south,  or  nearer  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico. 

April  16. — There  had  been  so  hard  a  frost  in  the  night,  that 
the  roof  of  our  steamer's  cabin  was  glazed  with  a  thin  sheet  of 
ice  as  we  approached  Pittsburg,  and  we  heard  fears  expressed 
that  the  fruit  trees  would  be  injured.  Four  years  had  elapsed 
since  we  were  last  at  Pittsburg,  and,  in  the  interval,  a  consider 
able  part  of  the  city,  covering  sixty  acres,  had  been  burnt  to  the 
ground,  the  great  roofed  bridge  over  the  Monongahela,  all  built 
of  wood,  having  shared  the  same  fate.  A  light  suspension  bridge 
has  already  replaced  that  structure  of  ponderous  aspect,  and  al 
though  the  conflagration  only  happened  in  April  of  last  year,  new 
streets  have  sprung  up  every  where  from  the  ashes  of  the  old,  and 
the  town  has  very  far  from  a  ruined  or  desolate  look.  Com 
manding  the  navigation  of  three  great  rivers,  and  an  inexhausti 
ble  supply  of  coal,  it  has  every  advantage  save  that  of  an  atmo 
sphere  free  from  coal  smoke. 

I  learnt  that  there  had  recently  been  a  strike  of  the  factory 
girls  here  for  ten  instead  of  twelve  hours  of  daily  labor.  Their 
employers  argue  that  they  are  competing  with  rivals  who  work 
their  girls  twelve  or  more  hours  per  day,  and  the  strike  has  fail 
ed  ;  yet  many  are  of  opinion,  that  even  without  legislative  inter 
ference,  a  ten-hour  rule  will  be  eventually  established. 

Most  of  our  companions  in  the  steamer  were  agents  of  com 
mercial  houses  going  to  look  out  for  orders  at  Pittsburg.  On  the 
whole  they  were  very  intelligent,  and  conversed  well  on  a  variety 
of  subjects,  while  most  of  them  were  too  gentlemanlike  to  feel 
ashamed  of  "  the  shop."  But  we  had  now  been  living  so  many 
weeks  in  public  with  strangers,  and  without  opportunities  of 
choosing  our  society,  that  great  was  our  delight  to  be  able  to  hire 
at  Pittsburg  a  private  carriage,  and  set  out  alone  on  an  expedi 
tion  to  Greensburg,  3  2  miles  distant,  where  I  had  a  point  of  geo 
logical  interest  to  investigate.  As  we  were  leaving  the  hotel,  a 
*  See  ante,  p.  195, 


226  JOURNEY  TO  GREENSBURG.       [CHAP.  XXXVII. 

news-boy,  finding  I  was  supplied  with  newspapers,  offered  to  sell " 
me  a  cheap  American  reprint  of  the  miscellaneous  works  of  Lord 
Jeffrey,  assuring  me  that  "  it  contained  all  the  best  articles  he 
had  written  in  the  Edinburg  Review." 

To  be  once  more  climbing  hills  even  of  moderate  height,  was 
an  agreeable  novelty  after  dwelling  so  long  on  the  flat  plains  of 
the  Mississippi.  We  were  on  the  direct  road,  leading  across  the 
Alleghanies  to  Harrisburg.  The  scenery  often  reminded  us  of 
England,  for  we  were  traveling  on  a  macadamized  road,  and 
passing  through  turnpike  gates,  with  meadows  on  one  side,  and 
often  on  the  other  large  fields  of  young  wheat,  of  an  apple-green 
color,  on  which  a  flock  of  sheep,  with  their  lambs,  had  been 
turned  in  to  feed.  The  absence  of  stumps  of  trees  in  the  fields 
was  something  new  to  us,  as  was  the  non-appearance  for  a  whole 
day  of  any  representative  of  the  negro  race.  Here  and  there  a 
snake-fence,  and  a  tall  strong  stubble  of  maize,  presented  a  point 
of  contrast  with  an  English  landscape.  In  some  of  the  water- 
meadows  the  common  English  marigold  (Caltlia  palustris)  was 
in  full  flower.  At  one  turn  of  the  road,  a  party  of  men  on  foot 
came  in  sight,  each  with  his  rifle,  and  they  were  followed,  at  a 
short  distance,  by  a  wagon  with  women  and  children,  and  a  train 
of  others  laden  with  baggage.  Our  driver  remarked  that  they 
were  "  movers,"  and  I  asked  him  if  he  ever  knew  an  instance  of 
an  American  migrating  eastward.  He  said  that  he  was  himself 
the  only  example  he  ever  heard  of;  for  he  was  from  Kentucky, 
having  come  the  year  before  to  satisfy  his  curiosity  with  a  sight 
of  the  great  Pittsburg  fire.  There  he  found  a  great  demand  for 
work,  and  so  was  tempted  to  stay. 

Our  road  lay  through  East  Liberty,  Wilkinsburg,  and  Adams- 
burg.  Some  day-laborers,  who  were  breaking  stones  on  the  road, 
told  me  they  were  receiving  seventy-five  cents,  or  three  shillings, 
a  day  ;  and  this  in  a  country  where  food  and  fuel  are  much 
cheaper  than  in  England,  although  clothing  is  rather  dearer. 

Near  Turtle  Creek,  two  farmers  conducted  me  to  a  spot  where 
coal  was  worked,  and  where  the  undulating  ground  consisted  of 
sandstone,  limestone,  and  shale,  green  and  black,  of  the  coal- 
formation,  precisely  resembling  strata  of  the  same  age  in  England, 


CHAP.  XXXVII.]          SCARCITY  OF  SERVANTS.  227 

both  in  mineral  appearance,  and  in  most  of  the  species  of  imbed 
ded  fossil  plants. 

About  fifteen  miles  before  we  reached  Greensburg,  we  saw,  in 
the  extreme  distance,  the  blue,  faint,  long,  and  unbroken  line  of 
the  most  western  ridge  of  the  Alleghanies. 

Greensburg  is  a  neat,  compact  town  of  about  1000  inhabit 
ants.  The  houses  are  all  of  brick  ;  there  is  a  court-house  and  five 
churches,  some  Lutheran,  others  Calvinistic,  the  German  language 
being  used  in  some,  and  the  English  in  others.  They  publish 
three  newspapers.  We  took  up  our  quarters  at  a  comfortable  old- 
fashioned  inn,  where  we  were  waited  upon  by  the  members  of 
the  family,  for  the  difficulty  of  hiring  or  retaining  servants  here, 
seems  to  be  extreme.  One  girl  had  left  a  lady,  whose  acquaint 
ance  we  made,  because,  being  a  farmer's  daughter,  she  was  not 
allowed  to  sit  down  at  table  with  her  mistress.  The  lady's  sis 
ter,  who  was  accomplished,  and  conversed  with  us  on  many  lit 
erary  subjects,  was  obliged  to  milk  the  cow  for  the  whole  sum 
mer,  though  they  were  in  easy  circumstances,  such  was  the 
scarcity  of  "  help/'  Fortunately  for  us,  my  wife  and  I  had,  by 
this  time,  acquired  the  habit  of  waiting  on  ourselves  in  the  inns, 
going  occasionally  down  to  the  kitchen  to  ask  for  things,  in  a  way 
which  in  England  would  be  thought  quite  derogatory  to  one's 
dignity,  especially  in  the  eyes  of  the  servants,  whose  trouble  would 
thereby  be  lessened.  Here,  on  the  contrary,  we  found  that  it 
made  us  popular.  The  general  system  in  America  that  servants 
at  inns  receive  no  gratuities,  but  are  paid  ample  wages  instead, 
is  one  cause  of  this  difference.  Yet  much  may  be  said  in  its 
favor,  as  it  raises  the  independence  of  the  servants,  and  relieves 
strangers  from  the  perplexity  of  determining  what  fees  are  suit 
able. 

There  was  a  crowded  public  meeting  the  day  of  our  arrival, 
at  which  several  orators  were  haranguing  an  audience  of  the 
lowest  class,  in  favor  of  war  with  England  about  Oregon.  The 
walls  were  placarded  with  bills,  on  which  were  printed,  in  large 
letters,  these  words,  "  Forty-Five,  or  Fight,"  which  meant  that 
the  Oregon  Territory  must  extend  as  far  north  as  the  45th  degree 
of  latitude. 


223  FOSSIL  FOOT-PRINTS  IN  COAL  STRATA.     [CHAP.  XXXVII. 

This  ambition  of  the  people  of  the  west  to  possess  Oregon,  is 
at  least  no  new  idea,  for  I  happened  to  purchase  at  Louisville  an 
old  guide-book,  describing  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio  and  the  city,  in 
which,  when  speaking  of  commercial  matters,  the  colonization 
and  annexation  of  Oregon  was  set  forth  as  the  means  of  "opening 
a  direct  trade  with  China."  I  observed  to  one  of  the  citizens, 
that  it  was  satisfactory  to  see  that  none  of  the  upper,  or  even 
of  the  middle  classes,  were  taking  any  part  at  Greensburg  in  this 
agitation.  He  shook  his  head,  and  said,  "  Very  true  ;  but  these 
meetings  are  most  mischievous,  for  you  must  bear  in  mind,  that 
your  nobody  in  England  is  our  everybody  in  America." 

I  had  determined  to  visit  Greensburg,  on  my  way  from  Pitts- 
burg  to  Philadelphia,  that  I  might  examine  into  the  evidence  of 
the  reality  of  certain  fossil  foot-prints  of  a  reptile  said  to  have 
been  found  in  strata  of  the  ancient  coal-formation,  and  of  which 
Dr.  King,  of  Greensburg,  had  published  an  account  in  1844. 
The  genuineness  of  these  foot-marks  was  a  point  on  which  many 
doubts  were  still  entertained,  both  in  Europe  and  America,  and 
I  had  been  requested  by  several  geological  friends  not  to  return 
without  having  made  up  my  mind  on  a  fact  which,  if  confirmed, 
was  of  the  highest  theoretical  importance.  Up  to  this  period, 
no  unequivocal  proofs  had  been  detected  of  the  fossil  remains  of 
vertebrated  animals  more  highly  organized  than  fishes,  in  strata 
of  such  antiquity  as  the  carboniferous  rocks,  and  the  absence  of 
air-breathing  quadrupeds  or  birds,  served  to  constitute  negative 
evidence,  of  peculiar  significance,  in  reference  to  the  coal-meas 
ures,  because,  as  before  stated,1*  they  contained  the  monuments 
of  shallow  fresh-water  swamps,  and  often  of  surfaces  of  land 
covered  with  a  luxuriant  vegetation  of  terrestrial  plants,  some  of 
the  buried  trees  of  which  still  remain  with  their  roots  in  their 
natural  position.  That  we  should  never  have  found,  in  such 
deposits,  the  remains  of  air-breathing  creatures,  except  a  few 
insects,  that  we  should  not  yet  have  met  with  a  single  mammifer 
or  bird,  or  lizard,  snake,  or  tortoise,  or  the  faintest  indication  of 
their  existence,  seemed  most  inexplicable,  and  led  many  geolo 
gists  to  embrace  the  opinion,  that  no  beings  having  a  higher 
*  See  ante,  p.  185. 


CHAP.  XXXVII.]     FOSSIL  FOOT-PRINTS  IN  COAL  STRATA.          229 

organization  than  fishes,  were  created  till  after  the  carboniferous 
strata  had  been  elaborated. 

During  my  stay  in  Westmoreland  County,  I  was  indebted  to  Dr. 
King  for  the  most  active  assistance  in  the  prosecution  of  my  inqui 
ries.  He  kindly  devoted  several  days  to  this  object,  and  we  first 
visited  together  a  stone  quarry  in  Union  township,  six  miles 
southeast  of  Greensburg,  on  a  farm  belonging  to  Mr.  Gallagher, 
where  the  foot-marks  had  been  first  observed,  standing  out  in 
relief  from  the  lower  surface  of  slabs  of  sandstone,  resting  on  thin 
layers  of  fine  clay.  These  slabs  were  extracted  for  paving-stones, 
and  the  excavation  was  begun  in  the  bank  of  a  small  stream, 
where  there  was  at  first  a  slight  thickness  only  of  shale  overlying 
the  harder  beds  ;  but  as  they  cut  their  way  into  the  bank,  the 
mass  of  shale  became  so  dense  as  to  oblige  them  to  desist  from 
the  work.  Between  the  slabs  of  stone,  each  a  few  inches  thick, 
were  thin  parting  layers  of  a  fine  unctuous  clay,  well  fitted  to 
receive  and  retain  faithful  impressions  of  the  feet  of  animals.  On 
the  upper  surface  of  each  layer,  Dr.  King  saw  the  foot-steps  im 
pressed  more  or  less  distinctly  ;  but,  as  the  clay  was  left  exposed 
to  the  weather,  it  had  crumbled  to  pieces  before  I  examined  it, 
and  I  had  only  an  opportunity  of  seeing  the  casts  of  the  same 
projecting  in  relief  from  the  under  sides  of  slabs  of  argillaceous 
sandstone.  I  brought  away  one  of  these  masses,  of  which  the 
annexed  figure  (fig.  12)  is  a  faithful  representation  ;  and  it  will 
be  observed  that  it  displays  not  only  the  marks  of  the  foot-prints 
of  an  animal,  but  also  casts  of  cracks,  a,  a',  of  various  sizes, 
which  must  have  existed  in  the  clay.  Such  casts  are  produced 
by  the  drying  and  shrinking  of  mud,  and  they  are  usually  detect 
ed  in  sandstones  of  all  ages  in  which  foot-marks  appear.  It  will 
be  seen  that  some  of  these  cracks,  as  at  b,  c,  traverse  the  foot 
prints,  and  they  not  unfrequently  produce  distortion  in  them,  as 
might  have  been  expected,  for  the  mud  must  have  been  soft 
when  the  animal  walked  over  it  and  left  the  impressions,  where 
as,  when  it  afterward  dried  up  and  shrank,  it  would  become  too 
hard  to  receive  such  indentations.  I  have  alluded,  in  my  former 
"Travels,"*  to  the  recent  foot-prints  of  birds  called  sand-pipers 
*  Vol.  ii.  p.  168. 


230          FOSSIL  FOOT-PRINTS  IN  COAL  STRATA.     [CHAP.  XXXVII. 


Fig.  12. 


Scale  one-sixth  the  original. 

Slab  of  sandstone  from  the  coal-measures  of  Pennsylvania,  with  foot- prints  of  air-breathing 
leptile  and  casts  of  cracks. 


CHAP.  XXXVII.]     FOSSIL  FOOT-PRINTS  IN  COAL  STRATA.          231 


Fig.  13. 


Series  of  reptilian  foot-prints  in  the  coal-^trataTof  Westmoreland  County, 
Pennsylvania. 

a.  Mark  of  nail  ? 


232  FOSSIL  FOOT-PRINTS  IN  COAL  STRATA.     [CHAP.  XXXVII. 

(Tringa  mimtta),  which  I  saw  running,  in  1842,  over  the  red 
mud  thrown  down  by  every  tide  on  the  borders  of  estuaries  con 
nected  with  the  Bay  of  Fundy.  When  this  mud,  which  extends 
over  thousands  of  acres,  has  been  baked  by  the  hot  summer  sun 
of  Nova  Scotia,  it  shrinks  and  cracks  to  the  depth  of  several 
inches  or  even  feet,  and  acquires  such  consistency  as  to  be  divisi 
ble  into  the  successive  layers  of  which  it  is  composed,  presenting 
on  many  upper  surfaces  impressions  of  birds'  feet  and  cracks,  and 
on  the  under  sides  the  casts  of  the  same  standing  out  in  relief.  ^ 

I  have  also  stated  f  that  on  the  sea  beach  near  Savannah,  in 
Georgia,  I  saw  clouds  of  fine  sand  drifted  by  the  wind,  filling  up 
the  foot-prints  of  racoons  and  opossums,  which  a  few  hours  before 
had  passed  along  the  shore,  after  the  retreat  of  the  tide.  This 
process  will  account,  in  a  satisfactory  manner,  for  the  sharpness 
of  many  fossil  casts  of  animals  in  ancient  rocks,  as  the  grains  of 
uniformly  fine  sand  were  poured  into  the  newly  made  cavities, 
not  by  a  current  of  water,  which  could  scarcely  have  failed  to 
disturb  the  soft  mud,  but  by  the  air,  which  could  not  cause  the 
slightest  derangement  of  the  most  delicate  imprints. 

No  less  than  twenty-three  foot-steps  were  observed  by  Dr. 
King  on  slabs  in  the  stone  quarry  of  Union  township,  before 
mentioned,  before  its  abandonment,  and  the  greater  part  of  these 
were  so  arranged  (see  fig.  13)  as  to  imply  that  they  were  the 
marks  of  the  successive  foot-steps  of  the  same  animal.  Every 
where  there  was  seen  a  double  row  of  tracks,  occurring  in  pairs, 
each  pair  consisting  of  a  hind  and  fore  foot,  and  each  being  at 
nearly  equal  distances  from  the  next  pair.  The  toes  in  each  of 
these  parallel  rows  turn  the  one  set  to  the  right,  the  other  to  the 
left.  It  is  instructive  to  compare  these  impressions  with  those 
which  had  previously  been  met  with  in  an  ancient  European 
rock  (although  one  of  less  antiquity  than  the  coal-formation), 
namely,  the  new  red  sandstone  or  Trias  of  Saxony  and  Cheshire. 
The  accompanying  figure  (fig.  14)  represents  the  Saxon  Cheiro- 

*  I  have  presented  specimens  of  this  red  mud,  with  the  foot-prints  of 
birds,  to  the  British  Museum,  Geological  Society,  and  Museum  of  Eco 
nomic  Geology. 

t  Travels,  vol.  i.  p.  167. 


CHAP.  XXXVII.]     FOSSIL  FOOT-PRINTS  IN  COAL  STRATA.          233 


therium,  so  called  by  Professor  Kaup,  because  the  marks 
both  of  the  fore  and  hind  feet  resemble  the  shape  of  a 
human  hand.  Now  in  these  European  hand-shaped 
foot-marks,  both  the  hind  and  fore  feet  have  each  five 
toes,  and  the  size  of  the  hind  foot  is  about  five  times 
as  large  as  the  fore  foot ;  but  in  the  American  fossil 
(fig.  13),  the  posterior  foot-print  is  not  nearly  twice 
as  large  as  the  anterior,  and  the  number  of  toes  is 
unequal,  being  five  in  the  hinder  and  four  in  the 
anterior  foot.  In  the  Greensburg  animal,  as  in  the 
European  Cheirotherium,  the  fifth  toe  stands  out  near 
ly  at  a  right  angle  with  the  foot,  and  somewhat  resem 
bles  the  human  thumb.  On  the  external  side  of  all 
the  Pennsylvanian  tracks,  both  the  larger  and  smaller, 
there  is  a  protuberance  like  the  rudiment  of  another 
toe.  The  average  length  of  the  hind  foot  is  five  and 
a  half  inches,  and  of  the  fore  foot  four  and  a  half. 
The  fore  and  hind  feet  being  in  pairs,  follow  each 
other  very  closely,  there  being  an  interval  of  about 
one  inch  only  between  them.  Between  each  pair 
the  distance  is  six  to  eight  inches,  and  between  the 
two  parallel  lines  of  tracks  there  is  about  the  same 
distance. 

In  the  case  of  the  European  Cheirotherium,  whether  English 
or  German,  the  hind  and  fore  feet  occur  in  pairs,  but  they  form 
only  one  row,  as  in  fig.  14,  in  consequence  of  the  animal  having 
put  its  feet  to  the  ground  nearly  under  the  middle  of  its  body,  and 
the  thumb-like  toes  are  seen  to  turn  to  the  right  and  to  the  left 
in  the  alternate  pairs.  But  in  the  American  tracks,  which  form 
two  parallel  rows,  all  the  thumb-like  toes  in  one  set  turn  to  the 
right,  and  in  the  other  set  to  the  left.  We  may  infer,  therefore, 
that  the  American  Cheirotherium  belongs  to  a  new  genus  of 
reptilian  quadrupeds,  wholly  distinct  from  that  which  characterizes 
the  triassic  strata  of  Europe,  and  such  a  generic  diversity  might 
have  been  expected  in  reptilian  fossils  of  such  different  ages. 

The  geological  position  of  the  sandstone  of  Greensburg  is  per 
fectly  clear,  being  situated  in  the  midst  of  the  Appalachian  coal- 


234  SCULPTURED  FOOT-PRINTS.       [CHAP.  XXXVII. 

field,  having  the  main  bed  of  coal,  called  the  Pittsburg  seam,  three 
yards  thick,  a  hundred  feet  above  it,  worked  in  the  neighborhood, 
and  several  other  seams  of  coal  at  lower  levels.  The  impressions 
of  Lepidodendron,  Sigillaria,  Stigmaria,  and  other  characteristic 
carboniferous  plants,  are  found  both  above  and  below  the  level  of 
the  reptilian  loot-steps. 

We  may  safely  assume  that  the  huge  reptile  which  left  these 
prints  on  the  ancient  sands  of  the  coal-measures  was  an  air- 
breather,  for  its  weight  would  not  have  been  sufficient  under 
water  to  have  made  impressions  so  deep  and  distinct.  The 
same  conclusion  is  also  borne  out  by  the  casts  of  the  cracks  above 
described,  for  they  show  that  the  clay  had  been  exposed  to  the 
air  and  suri,  so  as  to  have  dried  and  shrunk.  As  we  so  often  see 
the  ripple  mark  preserved  in  sandstones  of  all  ages,  and  in  none 
more  frequently  than  in  the  American  and  European  coal  strata, 
we  ought  not  to  feel  surprised  that  superficial  markings,  such  as 
foot-prints,  which  are  by  no  means  more  perishable  or  evanescent 
in  their  nature,  should  have  been  faithfully  preserved  down  to 
our  times,  when  once  the  materials  had  been  hardened  into  stone. 

There  are  some  bare  ledges  of  rock,  composed  of  pure  white 
quartzose  grit  of  the  coal-measures,  standing  out  exposed  above 
the  general  level  of  the  ground,  in  many  places  near  Greensburg, 
especially  near  Derry,  in  Westmoreland  County,  about  fourteen 
miles  north  of  G-reensburg.  They  are  so  bare  that  scarcely  any 
lichens  grow  upon  them,  and  on  some  of  them  the  foot-prints  oi 
birds,  as  well  as  those  of  dogs  and  some  other  quadrupeds  have 
been  artificially  cut.  After  examining  them  carefully,  I  entertain 
no  doubt  that  they  were  sculptured  by  Indians,  for  there  are  many 
Indian  graves  near  Deny,  arid  one  of  their  paths,  leading  through 
the  forest  from  the  Alleghany  Mountains  to  the  west,  lay  precisely 
in  the  line  of  these  curious  carvings.  The  toe  joints  in  the  feet 
of  the  birds  thus  cut  are  well  indicated,  as  might  have  been  ex 
pected,  for  the  aboriginal  hunting  tribes  of  North  America  were 
skillful  in  following  the  trail  of  all  kinds  of  game,  and  are  known 
to  have  carved  in  some  places  on  rocks,  many  rude  imitations  of 
the  external  forms  of  animals.  If,  therefore,  they  were  sometimes 
tempted  to  use  the  representation  of  foot-prints  as  symbols  of  the 


CHAP.  XXXVII. ]     OPPOSITION  TO  GEOLOGICAL  TRUTHS.  235 

birds  or  quadrupeds  which  they  hunted,  they  would  be  not  unlikely 
to  give  very  accurate  copies  of  markings  with  which  they  were 
so  familiar.  The  important  observations  made  by  Dr.  King 
relatively  to  the  fossil  imprints,  called  the  attention  of  the  whole 
country  to  the  Indian  antiquities  of  comparatively  modern  date  ; 
but  the  popular  notion  that  there  was  a  connection  between  them 
is  wholly  erroneous. 

Since  the  announcement,  by  Dr.  King,  in  1844,  of  the  proofs 
of  the  existence  of  reptiles  at  the  period  when  the  coal  strata  of 
Pennsylvania  were  formed,  Professor  Goldfuss,  of  Bonn,  has  pub 
lished  the  description  of  more  than  one  saurian  found  in  the  an 
cient  coal-measures  of  Saarbruck,  near  Treves. 

Never,  certainly,  in  the  history  of  science,  were  discoveries 
made  more  calculated  to  put  us  on  our  guard  for  the  future 
against  hasty  generalizations  founded  on  mere  negative  evidence. 
Geologists  have  been  in  the  habit  of  taking  for  granted,  that  at 
epochs  anterior  to  the  coal  there  were  no  birds  or  air-breathing 
quadrupeds  in  existence  ;  and  it  seems  still  scarcely  possible  to 
dispel  the  hypothesis  that  the  first  creation  of  a  particular  class 
of  beings  coincides  in  date  with  our  first  knowledge  of  it  in  a  fossil 
state,  or  the  kindred  dogma  that  the  first  appearance  of  life  on 
the  globe  agrees,  chronologically,  with  the  present  limits  of  our 
insight  into  the  first  creation  of  living  beings,  as  deduced  from 
organic  remains.  These  limits  have  shifted,  even  in  our  own 
times,  more  than  once,  or  have  been  greatly  expanded,  without 
dissipating  the  delusion,  so  intense  is  the  curiosity  of  man  to  trace 
back  the  present  system  of  things  to  a  beginning.  Rather  than 
be  disappointed,  or  entertain  a  doubt  of  his  power  to  discern  the 
shores  of  the  vast  ocean  of  past  time,  into  which  his  glances  are 
penetrating,  like  the  telescope  into  the  region  of  the  remoter  ne 
bulae,  he  can  not  refrain  from  pleasing  his  imagination  with  the 
idea  that  some  fog-banks,  resting  on  the  bosom  of  the  deep,  are, 
in  reality,  the  firm  land  for  which  his  aching  vision  is  on  the 
stretch. 

I  can  not  conclude  these  remarks  on  the  geological  discoveries 
made  in  these  remote  valleys  of  the  Alleghanies,  without  alluding 
to  a  moral  phenomenon,  which  was  forcibly  brought  before  my 


236  OPPOSITION  TO  GEOLOGICAL  TRUTHS.     [CHAP.  XXXVIL 

mind  in  the  course  of  the  investigation.  The  interest  excited  by 
these  singular  monuments  of  the  olden  times,  naturally  led  to 
animated  discussions,  both  in  lecture-rooms  and  in  the  columns 
of  the  daily  journals  of  Pennsylvania,  during  which  the  high 
antiquity  of  the  earth,  and  the  doctrine  of  former  changes  in  the 
species  of  animals  and  plants  inhabiting  this  planet  before  the 
creation  of  man,  were  assumed  as  established  truths.  But  these 
views  were  so  new  and  startling,  and  so  opposed  to  popular  pre 
possessions,  that  they  drew  down  much  obloquy  upon  their  pro- 
mulgators,  who  incurred  the  censures  not  only  of  the  multitude, 
but  also  of  some  of  the  Roman  Catholic  and  Lutheran  clergy. 
The  social  persecution  was  even  carried  so  far  as  to  injure  pro 
fessionally  the  practice  of  some  medical  men,  who  had  given 
publicity  to  the  obnoxious  doctrines.  Several  of  the  ministers 
of  the  Lutheran  church,  who  had  studied  for  years  in  German 
universities,  were  too  well  informed  not  to  believe  in  the  conclu 
sions  established  by  geologists,  respecting  the  immensity  of  past 
time  and  former  vicissitudes,  both  in  animal  and  vegetable  life  : 
but  although  taking  a  lively  interest  in  discoveries  made  at  their 
own  door,  and  joining  in  the  investigations,  they  were  compelled 
by  prudence  to  conceal  their  opinions  from  their  congregations,  or 
they  would  have  lost  all  influence  over  them,  and  might  perhaps 
have  seen  their  churches  deserted.  Yet  by  maintaining  silence 
in  deference  to  the  opinions  of  the  more  ignorant,  they  become,  in 
some  degree,  the  instruments  of  countenancing  error  ;  nay,  they 
are  rearing  up  the  rising  generation  to  be,  in  their  turn,  the  per 
secutors  of  many  of  their  contemporaries,  who  may  hereafter  be 
far  in  advance  in  their  scientific  knowledge. 

"  To  nothing  but  error,"  says  a  popular  writer  of  our  times, 
"  can  any  truth  be  dangerous ;  and  I  know  not,"  he  exclaims, 
"  where  else  there  is  seen  so  altogether  tragical  a  spectacle,  as 
that  religion  should  be  found  standing  in  the  highways,  to  say, 
<  Let  no  man  learn  the  simplest  laws  of  the  universe,  lest  they 
mislearn  the  highest.  In  the  name  of  God  the  Maker,  who  said, 
and  hourly  yet  says,  Let  there  lie  light,  we  command  that  you 
continue  in  darkness  !'  "* 

*  Letter  on  Secular  Education,  by  T.  Carlyle,  July,  1848. 


CHAP.  XXXVII.]        INTELLECTUAL  FREEDOM. 


Goldsmith,  in  the  "  Vicar  of  Wakefield,"  makes  his  traveler 
say,  that  after  he  had  walked  through  Europe,  and  examined 
mankind  nearly,  he  found  that  it  is  not  the  forms  of  government, 
whether  they  be  monarchies  or  commonwealths,  that  determine 
the  amount  of  liberty  enjoyed  by  individuals,  but  that  "  riches  in 
general  are  in  every  country  another  name  for  freedom."  I  agree 
with  Goldsmith  that  the  forms  of  government  are  not  alone  suffi 
cient  to  secure  freedom — they  are  but  means  to  an  end.  Here 
we  have  in  Pennsylvania  a  free  press,  a  widely  extended  suffrage, 
and  the  most  perfect  religious  toleration — nay,  more  than  tolera 
tion,  all  the  various  sects  enjoying  political  equality,  and,  what  is 
more  rare,  an  equality  of  social  rank ,  yet  all  this  machinery  is 
not  capable,  as  we  have  seen,  of  securing  even  so  much  of  intel 
lectual  freedom  as  shall  enable  a  student  of  nature  to  discuss 
freely  the  philosophical  questions  which  the  progress  of  science 
brings  naturally  before  him.  He  can  not  even  announce  with 
impunity,  results  which  half  a  century  of  observation  and  reason 
ing  has  confirmed  by  evidence  little  short  of  mathematical  demon 
stration.  But  can  riches,  as  Goldsmith  suggests,  secure  intellectual 
liberty  ?  No  doubt  they  can  protect  the  few  who  possess  them 
from  pecuniary  penalties,  when  they  profess  unpopular  doctrines. 
But  to  enable  a  man  to  think,  he  must  be  allowed  to  communi 
cate  freely  his  thoughts  to  others.  Until  they  have  been  brought 
into  the  daylight  and  discussed,  they  will  never  be  clear  even  to 
himself.  They  must  be  warmed  by  the  sympathy  of  kindred 
minds,  and  stimulated  by  the  heat  of  controversy,  or  they  will 
never  be  fully  developed  and  made  to  ripen  and  fructify. 

How,  then,  can  we  obtain  this  liberty  ?  There  is  only  one 
method  ;  it  is  by  educating  the  millions,  and  by  dispelling  their 
ignorance,  prejudices,  and  bigotry. 

Let  Pennsylvania  not  only  establish  numerous  free  schools,  but 
let  her,  when  she  organizes  a  system  of  government  instruction, 
raise  the  qualifications,  pay,  and  station  in  society  of  the  secular 
teachers,  as  highly  as  Massachusetts  is  now  aspiring  to  do,  and 
the  persecution  I  have  complained  of  will  cease  at  once  and  for 
ever. 

The  project  of  so  instructing  the  millions  might  well  indeed  be 


238  POPULAR  EDUCATION.  [CHAP,  XXXVII. 

deemed  Utopian,  if  it  were  necessary  that  all  should  understand 
the  patient  and  laborious  trains  of  research  and  reasoning  by  which 
we  have  arrived  at  grand  generalizations  in  geology,  and  other 
branches  of  physical  science.  But  this  is  not  requisite  for  the 
desired  end.  We  have  simply  to  communicate  the  results,  and 
this  we  are  bound  to  do,  without  waiting  till  they  have  been 
established  for  half  a  century.  We  ought  rather  carefully  to 
prepare  the  public  mind  for  new  conclusions  as  soon  as  they 
become  highly  probable,  and  thus  make  impossible  that  collision 
of  opinion,  so  much  to  be  deprecated,  between  the  multitude  and 
the  learned. 

It  is  as  easy  to  teach  a  peasant  or  a  child  that  the  earth  moves 
round  the  sun,  as  to  inculcate  the  old  exploded  dogma  that  it  is 
the  motionless  center  of  the  universe.  The  child  is  as  willing  to 
believe  that  our  planet  is  of  indefinite  antiquity,  as  that  it  is  only 
6000  years  old.  Tell  him  that  the  earth  was  inhabited  by  other 
races  of  animals  and  plants  before  the  creation  of  man,  as  we  now 
know  it  to  have  been,  and  the  idea  is  not  more  difficult  for  him 
to  conceive  than  the  notion  which  is  usually  allowed  to  take  root 
in  his  mind,  that  man  and  the  species  of  animals  and  plants,  now 
our  contemporaries,  were  the  first  occupants  of  this  globe.  All 
that  we  require,  when  once  a  good  system  of  primary  and  normal 
schools  has  been  organized,  is  a  moderate  share  of  moral  courage 
and  love  of  truth,  on  the  part  of  the  laity  and  clergy  ;  and  then 
the  academical  chair  and  scientific  lecture-room,  and  every  pulpit, 
and  every  village  school,  may  be  made  to  speak  the  same  lan 
guage,  in  regard  to  those  natural  phenomena,  which  are  of  a  kind 
to  strike  and  interest  the  popular  mind.* 

*  The  substance  of  the  above  remarks,  on  the  fossil  foot-prints  of  Greens- 
burg,  was  given  by  me  in  a  Lecture  to  the  Royal  Institution,  London,  Feb. 

4,  1848. 


/  V 

Jsfff'j  • 


CHAPTER  XXXVIII. 

Greensburg  to  Philadelphia. — Crossing  the  Alleghany  Mountains. — Scenery. 
— Absence  of  Lakes.  —  Harrisburg. —  African  Slave-trade.  —  Railway 
Meeting  at  Philadelphia. — Borrowing  Money  for  Public  Works. — Negro 
Episcopal  Clergyman. — Washington. — National  Fair  and  Protectionist 
Doctrines. — Dog-wood  in  Virginia. — Excursion  with  Dr.  Wyman. — Nat 
ural  History. — Musk-rats. — Migration  of  Humming-birds  to  New  Jersey. 

April  19,  1846. — LEFT  Greensburg,  intending  to  cross  the 
Alleghariy  Mountains  to  Harrisburg,  and  go  thence  to  Philadel 
phia.  We  started  in  the  evening  in  a  large  stage  coach,  in  which 
were  nine  inside  passengers,  so  that  our  night  journey  through 
Youngstown,  Stony  town,  and  Shellsburg  was  fatiguing,  and  not 
the  less  so  by  our  having  twice  to  turn  out  in  the  dark,  while  all 
the  luggage  was  shifted  to  a  new  vehicle.  The  last  of  these 
broke  down,  one  of  the  wheels  having  given  way,  and  we  had  an 
opportunity  of  witnessing  the  resources  and  ingenuity  displayed  on 
such  occasions  by  American  travelers.  A  large  bough  of  a  tree 
was  cut  off  with  an  ax,  and  tied  on  to  the  axletree  with  ropes, 
so  as  to  support  the  body  of  the  carriage,  and  in  this  way  we 
went  several  miles  without  inconvenience.  During  one  of  the 
night  transfers  of  our  luggage  a  carpet  bag  of  mine  was  left  be 
hind,  and  when  I  afterward  missed  it  at  Philadelphia  I  wrote  to 
three  places  to  claim  it.  After  five  days  I  found  it  in  my  room 
in  the  hotel,  no  one  knowing  whence  it  came,  and  nothing  having 
been  paid  for  it.  Before  reaching1  Philadelphia  it  must  have  been 
transferred  to  three  distinct  conveyances,  including  two  railways. 
I  may  state  here  a  fact  highly  creditable  to  the  public  convey 
ances  in  the  United  States,  that  I  never  lost  a  package  in  either 
of  my  tours,  although  I  sent  more  than  thirty  boxes  of  geological 
specimens  from  various  places,  often  far  south  of  the  Potomac, 
and  west  of  the  Alleghanies  ;  some  by  canals,  some  by  river 
steamers,  others  by  coaches  or  railways.  Every  one  of  them 
sooner  or  later  found  their  way  safely  to  my  house  in  London. 


240  ABSENCE  OF  LAKES.  [CHAP.  XXXV11I. 

On  leaving  Greensburg  we  crossed  one  after  another  of  the  long 
parallel  ridges  of  which  the  Alleghany  chain  is  composed,  de 
scending  into  each  of  the  long  intervening  valleys,  the  hills  be 
coming  higher  and  higher  as  we  advanced  eastward.  The  char 
acter  of  the  forest  changed  as  we  came  to  higher  ground,  espe 
cially  by  the  intermixture  of  trees  of  the  fir  tribe,  and  by  the 
undergrowth  of  azaleas,  kalmias,  and  rhododendrons,  for  I  had 
seen  none  of  these  evergreens  since  I  left  Indiana,  not  even  under 
the  oak  wood  round  Greensburg.  When  day  dawned  we  had 
reached  the  highest  part  of  our  road,  and  enjoyed  a  splendid 
mountain  view,  the  steep  wooded  slopes  being  relieved  by  the 
contrast  of  green  meadows  bordering  the  rivers  in  the  bottom  of 
each  deep  valley,  while  in  many  parts  of  the  landscape  a  pictur 
esque  effect  was  produced  by  what  appeared  to  be  extensive  lakes. 
All  who  were  strangers  to  the  scene  required  to  be  assured  that 
they  were  not  really  sheets  of  water  ;  yet  they  were  simply  banks 
of  dense  white  fog  resting  on  the  low  grounds,  which  the  heat  of 
the  sun  would  soon  dissipate.  It  is  singular  that  there  are  no 
lakes  in  the  Appalachian  chain,  all  the  rivers  escaping  from  the 
longitudinal  valleys  through  gorges  or  cross  fissures,  which  seem 
invariably  to  accompany  such  long  flexures  of  the  strata  as  char 
acterize  the  Alleghanies  or  the  Jura. 

In  Campbell's  "  Gertrude  of  Wyoming,"  indeed,  we  see — 

"Lake  after  lake  interminably  gleam," 

amidst  the  Appalachian  ridges  ;  but  such  characteristics  of  the 
scenery  of  this  chain  are  as  pure  inventions  of  the  poet's  imagina 
tion,  as  the  flamingoes,  palrns,  and  aloes  with  which  he  adorns 
the  banks  of  the  Susquehanna. 

Near  the  highest  summit  of  the  chain  I  saw  two  seams  of  ex 
cellent  coal,  one  of  them  twelve  feet  thick,  in  strata  belonging  to 
the  same  series  which  I  had  examined  near  Greensburg.  After 
descending  from  the  highest  level,  we  followed  for  a  time  the 
windings  of  the  Juniata  River,  the  road  often  bounded  by  high 
rocky  cliffs,  on  the  ledges  of  which  we  saw  the  scarlet  columbine, 
blue  hepatica,  and  other  wild  flowers  in  blossom. 

We  slept  at  Chambersburg,  where,  on  the  roof  of  the  court- 


CHAP.  XXXVIII.]        AFRICAN  SLAVE-TRADE.  241 

house,  stands  a  statue  of  Franklin,  holding  a  lightning  conductor 
in  his  hand.  A  company  of  firemen  were  exercising  their  en 
gines  in  the  great  square,  throwing  up  powerful  jets  of  water 
high  enough  to  wash  the  statue. 

From  Chambersburg  we  went  on  by  railway  at  the  rate  of 
fourteen  miles  an  hour,  only  slackening  our  pace  when  we  passed 
through  the  middle  of  towns,  such  as  Shippensburg  and  Carlisle, 
where  we  had  the  amusement  of  looking  from  the  cars  into  the 
shop  windows. 

On  reaching  the  Susquehanna  we  came  in  sight  of  Harrisburg, 
the  seat  of  Legislature  of  Pennsylvania,  a  cheerful  town,  which 
makes  a  handsome  appearance  at  a  distance,  with  its  numerous 
spires  and  domes.  The  railway  bridge  over  the  river  had  been, 
burnt  down,  and  the  old  bridge  carried  away  by  a  recent  freshet, 
when  large  fragments  of  ice  were  borne  down  against  the  piers. 

Among  the  passengers  in  the  railway  to  Philadelphia,  was  an 
American  naval  officer,  who  had  just  returned  from  service  on 
the  coast  of  Africa,  fully  persuaded  that  the  efforts  made  by  the 
English  and  United  States  fleets  to  put  down  the  slave-trade, 
had  increased  the  misery  and  loss  of  life  of  the  negroes,  without 
tending  to  check  the  traffic,  which  might,  he  thought,  have  been 
nearly  put  an  end  to  before  now,  if  England  and  other  countries 
had  spent  an  equally  enormous  sum  of  money  in  forming  settle 
ments  such  as  Liberia ;  although  he  admitted  that  negroes  from 
the  United  States,  whose  families  had  been  acclimatized  in  Amer 
ica  for  several  generations,  and  who  settled  in  Liberia,  were  cut 
off  by  fever  almost  as  rapidly  as  Europeans. 

Returning  to  Philadelphia,  after  an  absence  of  six  months,  we 
were  as  much  pleased  as  ever  with  the  air  of  refinement  of  the 
principal  streets,  and  the  well-dressed  people  walking  on  the  neat 
pavements,  under  the  shade  of  a  double  row  of  green  trees,  or 
gazing,  in  a  bright,  clear  atmosphere,  at  the  tastefully  arranged 
shop  windows  ;  nor  could  we  agree  with  those  critics  who  com 
plain  of  the  prim  and  quakerish  air,  and  the  monotonous  same 
ness,  of  so  regularly  built  a  city. 

During  our  stay,  a  large  meeting  was  held  to  promote  a  scheme 
for  a  new  railway  to  Pittsburg,  through  Harrisburg,  the  interest 

VOL.   II. L 


242  NEGRO  CLERGYMAN.  [CHAP.  XXXVIII. 

of  the  money  to  be  raised  chiefly  by  city  rates.  Some  of  rny 
friends  here  are  opposed  to  the  measure,  declaring  that  such  pub 
lic  works  are  never  executed  with  economy,  nor  thriftily  man 
aged.  The  taxation  always  falls  on  some  districts,  which  derive 
no  profit  from  the  enterprise,  and  they  demand  other  grants  of 
public  money  as  a  compensation,  and  these  are  laid  out  with  equal 
extravagance.  The  good  sense  of  the  New  Englanders,  say  they, 
has  almost  invariably  checked  them  from  entering  upon  such  un 
dertakings,  and  in  one  of  the  few  instances  in  which  they  have 
deviated  from  sound  policy,  they  have  repented.  For  when,  in 
opposition  to  the  richer  inhabitants,  a  branch  railway  was  made 
to  connect  Bridgeport,  in  Connecticut,  with  the  main  line  of  road, 
the  bonds  of  that  small  inland  town  were  pledged  as  security  for 
the  money  borrowed.  The  traffic  proved  insufficient  to  meet 
their  liabilities,  and  a  majority  of  the  citizens  then  determined  to 
repudiate.  The  rich  alleged  that  they  had  opposed  the  project, 
and  the  poor,  who  had  voted  away  their  money,  were  quite  will 
ing  that  no  new  taxes  should  be  imposed.  The  creditors,  how 
ever,  went  to  law,  and,  by  aid  of  the  courts,  compelled  payment, 
as  the  Supreme  Court  might  have  done  in  the  case  of  the  delin 
quent  states  (had  not  the  original  constitution  of  the  Union  been 
altered  before  any  of  them  repudiated),  which  might  have  given 
a  wholesome  check  to  rash  enterprises  guaranteed  by  state  bonds. 

The  booksellers  tell  me  that  their  trade  is  injured  by  the  war- 
panic,  arid  I  observe  that  most  of  the  halfpenny,  or  cent  papers, 
are  still  very  belligerent  on  the  Oregon  question. 

On  Sunday,  I  attended  service,  for  the  first  time,  in  a  free 
black  Episcopal  church.  Prayers  were  read  well  by  a  negro 
clergyman,  who  was  evidently  an  educated  man.  The  congre 
gation  consisted  wholly  of  the  colored  race.  Where  there  is  a 
liturgy,  and  where  written  sermons  are  read,  there  is  small  oppor 
tunity  of  comparing  the  relative  capabilities  of  Africans  and  Euro 
peans  for  the  discharge  of  such  functions.  In  the  Baptist,  Meth 
odist,  and  Presbyterian  services,  the  success  of  the  minister  depends 
much  more  on  his  individual  ability.  I  was  glad,  however,  to 
see  a  negro  officiating  in  a  church  which  confers  so  much  social 
rank  on  its  clergyman,  and  in  no  city  more  than  Philadelphia 


CHAP.  XXXVIII.]    WASHINGTON— FREE  TRADE.  243 

does  the  colored  race  stand  in  need  of  some  such  make- weights  to 
neutralize  the  prejudices  which  retard  their  natural  progress. 
We  were  told  of  an  ineffectual  attempt,  recently  made  by  a  lady 
here,  to  obtain  leave  to  bury  a  favorite  free  negro  woman  in  St. 
James's  graveyard,  although  she  had  died  a  member  of  the  Epis 
copal  church  ;  nor  are  any  colored  people  allowed  to  be  buried  at 
the  Laurel  Hill  Cemetery.  That  burial-ground  commands  a 
beautiful  view  up  and  down  the  Schuylkill,  and  the  ground  there 
is  laid  out  with  much  taste,  being  covered  with  evergreens  and 
trees,  and  having  many  of  the  graves  adorned,  at  this  season, 
with  violets  and  lilies  of  the  valley. 

April  27. — Leaving  my  wife  with  some  friends  at  Philadel 
phia,  I  set  out  on  a  geological  tour  to  Richmond,  Virginia,  to  Re 
sume  my  examination  of  the  Oolitic  coal-field,  left  half-finished  in 
December  last.  At  Washington  I  found  they  were  holding  a 
national  fair,  or  grand  exhibition  of  manufactured  articles,  intend 
ed  to  convince  Congress  of  the  advantage  of  a  high  tariff.  The 
protectionists  maintain  that  every  article  which,  for  seven  years, 
has  been  shielded  from  foreign  competition,  has  been  reduced  in 
price  to  the  consumer  below  the  foreign  cost  at  the  time  when 
the  duty  was  imposed.  The  free-traders,  on  the  other  hand, 
argue,  that  their  antagonists  keep  out  of  sight  the  fact  that  in 
those  same  seven  years  the  price  of  the  foreign  articles  might, 
and  probably  would,  have  fallen  as  much.  One  party  points  to 
the  former  policy  of  Great  Britain  toward  her  American  colonies  ; 
how  she  interdicted  them  from  manufacturing  for  themselves,  and 
even  from  selling  the  productions  of  their  own  soil  and  industry 
to  any  but  the  mother  country  ; — how  she  grew  rich  by  monop 
oly  and  restrictions,  nursing  her  infant  agriculture,  commerce,  and 
factories,  by  prohibitive  duties  ;  and  they  ask  whether,  if  the 
English  cabinet  really  believed  in  the  theory  of  free-trade,  they 
would  not  long  ere  this  have  repealed  the  navigation  laws  ?  The 
advocates  of  the  opposite  policy  appeal  to  the  recent  law  for  ad 
mitting  American  corn  duty-free  into  England,  as  demonstrating 
the  sincerity  of  the  British  government.  But  in  this  controversy 
it  happens,  as  usual,  that  class-interests  are  espoused  with  all  the 
personal  zeal  and  energy  with  which  men  pursue  a  private  object, 


244  TREES  AND  FLOWERS.          [CHAP.  XXXVIII. 

while  the  cause  of  science,  and  the  general  good  of  the  public, 
being  every  body's  business,  are  treated  with  comparative  apathy. 

When  I  arrived  in  Virginia,  April  29th,  I  found  the  woods 
every  where  enlivened  by  the  dazzling  white  flowers,  or  bracteae, 
of  the  dog- wood  (Cornus  florida),  the  average  height  of  wliich 
somewhat  exceeds  that  of  our  white  thorn  ;  and  when,  as  often 
happens,  there  is  a  back-ground  of  cedar  or  pine,  the  mass  of 
flower  is  almost  as  conspicuous  as  if  a  shower  of  snow  had  fallen 
upon  the  boughs.  As  we  sometimes  see  a  pink  variety  of  the 
wild  thorn  in  England,  so  there  occurs  here,  now  and  then,  though 
rarely,  a  pink  dog- wood.  Having  never  remarked  this  splendid 
tree  in  any  English  shrubbery  or  park,  I  had  some  fine  young 
plants  sent  home  from  a  nursery  to  several  English  friends,  and, 
among  others,  to  Sir  William  Hooker,  at  Kew,  who  was  not  a 
little  diverted  at  my  zeal  for  the  introduction  ef  a  tree  which  had 
been  well-established  for  many  years  in  the  British  arboretum. 
But  now  that  I  have  since  seen  the  dwarfed  and  shabby  repre 
sentatives  of  this  species  in  our  British  shrubberies,  I  am  ready  to 
maintain  that  it  is  still  unknown  in  our  island.  No  Virginian, 
who  was  not  a  botanist,  could  ever  recognize  it  in  England  as  the 
same  plant  as  the  dog- wood  of  his  native  land.  Yet  it  is  capable 
of  enduring  frosts  as  severe  and  protracted  as  are  ever  experienced 
in  the  south  of  England,  and  the  cause  of  its  flowers  not  attain 
ing  their  full  size  in  our  climate,  is  probably  a  want  of  sufficient 
intensity  of  light  and  heat. 

A  great  variety  of  oaks  were  now  in  leaf  in  the  Virginian 
forests,  among  which  I  observed  the  white  oak,  with  its  leaves 
in  the  shape  of  a  violin,  and  the  willow  oak,  with  long  and  nar 
row  leaves.  The  ground  underneath  these  trees  was  adorned 
with  the  pink  azalea  and  many  other  flowers,  among  the  rest  the 
white  violet,  a  species  of  phlox,  and  an  everlasting  Gnaplialium. 

The  cedar  (Juniperus  virginiana)  is  often  covered  at  this 
season  with  what  is  termed  here  the  cedar  apple  (Podisoma 
macropus),  supposed  by  many  of  the  inhabitants  to  be  the  flower 
or  fruit  of  the  tree  itself.  It  is  a  beautiful  orange-colored  fungus, 
ornamented  with  tassels,  a  very  conspicuous  object  after  a  shower, 
but  shrinking  up  if  exposed  to  a  day's  sunshine. 


CHAP.  XXXVIII.]  NATURAL  HISTORY.  245 

I  made  excursions  in  various  directions  with  my  friend  Mr. 
GifFord,  to  examine  the  coal  mines  north  and  south  of  Black- 
heath,  near  Richmond,  and  have  already  given  the  results  of  our 
observations  in  the  first  volume.^  I  afterward  made  an  expedi 
tion  with  Dr.  Wyman,  now  Professor  of  Comparative  Anatomy 
at  Cambridge,  Massachussetts,  to  examine  the  geology  of  the 
tertiary  strata  round  Richmond,  and  those  (of  the  Eocene  period) 
displayed  in  the  cliffs  bordering  the  Potomac  River,  near  Acquia. 
Creek.  In  one  of  our  walks  we  saw  some  dogs  feeding  on  part 
of  the  carcass  of  a  horse,  and  a  group  of  turkey-buzzards  eagerly 
looking  on  close  at  hand,  but  not  daring  to  share  in  the  repast. 
Near  the  same  spot  were  the  skulls  of  two  dogs  lying  bleached 
in  the  sun,  and  in  the  hollow  of  each  we  found  the  nest  of  a 
large  species  of  wasp,  somewhat  resembling  our  hornet,  contain 
ing  a  good  store  of  honey.  On  the  surface  of  some  pools  of 
water  I  saw  floating  the  singular  seed-vessel  of  the  nuphar,  or 
yellow  pond  lily  (Nelumbiuni).  These  seeds  have  been  known 
to  vegetate  after  they  have  been  kept  for  a  hundred  years. 

In  passing  through  a  wood  near  Acquia  Creek,  on  a  hot  day, 
we  came  upon  a  large  snake,  about  four  feet  long,  resembling 
that  called  the  mocassin,  which  lifted  itself  up,  folding  its  body 
into  several  graceful  coils,  and  then  darted  its  head  and  neck 
forward  at  a  dog  which  had  followed  us  from  the  inn.  The  dog 
dexterously  retreated  as  often  -as  a  blow  was  aimed  at  him,  bark 
ing  loudly,  and  enjoying  the  rnock  fight.  The  extremity  of  the 
snake's  tail,  although  not  armed  with  a  rattle,  was  in  a  state  of 
constant  vibration. 

On  a  soft  sandy  road  we  saw  a  great  many  of  the  ball-rolling 
beetles  (Ateuchus  volvens),  which  resemble  in  form  the  Scarabceus 
sacer  of  Egypt.  They  were  all  busily  engaged  in  pushing  along 
round  balls  of  dung,  in  the  center  of  some  of  which  we  found  an 
egg,  and  in  others  a  maggot.  A  pair  of  beetles  was  occupied 
with  each  globular  mass,  which  considerably  exceeded  themselves 
in  size.  One  of  them  went  before,  and  usually  climbed  up  the 
side  of  the  ball  till  the  weight  of  its  body  made  the  mass  fall 
over,  the  other  pushing  behind,  so  as  to  urge  it  forward,  or  at 
*  Vol.  i.  p.  211. 


246  MUSK-RATS.  [CHAP.  XXXVIII 

least  prevent  it  from  rolling  back  again.  We  saw  two  of  them 
in  half  a  minute  force  a  ball  for  a  distance  of  eighteen  inches  up 
a  gentle  slope,  and  when  they  reached  a  soft  part  of  the  road, 
one  of  them  began  to  excavate  a  hole,  and  soon  entirely  disap 
peared  under  ground,  heaving  up  the  earth  till  it  cracked  and 
opened  wide  enough  to  allow  his  companion  to  push  the  ball  of 
dung  into  it.  The  round  mass  immediately  began  to  sink,  and 
in  a  few  minutes  was  out  of  sight.  We  saw  another  pair  try  in 
vain  to  bury  their  treasure,  for  they  had  selected  a  spot  where 
the  soil  was  too  hard  ;  at  last  they  gave  up  the  attempt,  and, 
rolling  it  away,  set  out  in  search  of  a  more  favorable  spot. 

We  crossed  several  plowed  fields  on  the  slope  of  the  hills  which 
descend  toward  the  Potomac,  where  a  singular  kind  of  manure  is 
used,  consisting  of  dead  fish,  and  almost  exclusively  of  the  bony 
pike,  or  gar-fish  (Lepidosteus  oxyurus).  The  hard  stony  scales 
resist  decomposition  for  several  years.  The  fishermen  told  us 
that  they  are  greatly  annoyed  by  constantly  taking  these  pikes 
in  their  nets  with  the  herrings.  There  is  so  enormous  an  abund 
ance  of  herrings  in  some  spots  in  this  estuary,  that  50,000  have 
sometimes  been  taken  this  season  in  a  few  hours. 

In  a  marsh  near  the  inn,  we  observed  numerous  habitations 
of  the  musk-rat,  standing  up  like  hay-cocks.  When  the  small 
size  of  the  animal  is  considered,  the  quantity  of  dried  grass,  reeds, 
and  rushes  accumulated  in  one  of  these  hummocks,  at  least  a 
cart-load,  is  surprising.  We  waded  through  the  water  to  one 
of  them,  and  found  that  it  was  four  feet  high,  and  nine  feet  in 
diameter.  When  we  pulled  it  to  pieces,  the  smell  of  musk  was 
very  perceptible.  At  the  depth  of  about  sixteen  inches  from  the 
top  we  found  a  cavity,  or  chamber,  and  a  small  gallery  leading 
from  it  to  another  chamber  below,  from  which  a  second  gallery 
descended,  and  then  went  upward  again  to  a  third  chamber,  from 
all  which  there  was  a  perpendicular  passage,  leading  down  to  below 
the  level  of  the  water,  so  that  the  rats  can  dive,  and,  without  being 
seen  again,  enter  their  apartments,  in  which  they  breathe  air. 

The  unio,  or  fresh-water  mussel,  is  a  favorite  food  of  these 
rats,  and  they  often  leave  the  shells  on  the  banks  of  the  American 
rivers,  with  one  valve  entire  and  the  other  broken.  In  the  even- 


CHAP.  XXXVIII.]  HUMMING-BIRDS.  247 

ing  the  note  of  the  bull-frog,  in  these  swamps,  reminded  me  much 
of  the  twanging  of  a  large  Jew's  harp. 

From  Acquia  Creek,  I  went,  by  steamer,  to  Washington,  and 
thence  by  railway  through  Philadelphia  to  the  town  of  Burling 
ton,  in  New  Jersey,  beautifully  situated  on  the  banks  of  the 
Delaware.  Here  I  paid  a  short  visit  to  my  friend,  Mr.  William 
M'llvaine,  and  crossed  the  Delaware  with  him  to  Bristol,  to 
renew  my  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Vanuxem,  a  geologist  of  no 
ordinary  merit.  His  death,  which  happened  soon  afterward, 
was  a  loss  to  the  public  as  well  as  to  many  personal  friends. 

In  Wilson's  "  Ornithology"  it  is  stated,  that  the  humming 
bird  migrates  from  the  south  to  Pennsylvania  the  latter  part  of 
April,  and  builds  its  nest  there  about  the  middle  of  May.  For 
the  last  thirty  years,  Mr.  M'llvaine  had  never  been  disappointed 
in  seeing  it  reach  Burlington  the  first  week  of  that  month,  gen 
erally  about  the  middle  of  the  week,  its  northward  progress  being 
apparently  hastened  or  retarded  by  the  mildness  or  inclemency 
of  the  season.  They  seem  always  to  wait  for  the  flowering  of  a 
species  of  horse-chestnut,  called  here  the  buck-eye,  from  a  fancied 
likeness  of  its  fruit  to  the  eye  of  a  deer.  The  bright-red  blos 
soms  of  this  tree  supply  the  nourishment  most  attractive  to  these 
birds,  whose  arrival  had  been  looked  for  the  very  day  after  I 
came.  Strange  to  say,  one  of  them,  the  avant-courier  of  the 
feathered  host,  actually  appeared,  and  next  morning,  May  7th, 
hundreds  were  seen  and  heard  flitting  and  humming  over  the 
trees.  A  lady  sent  us  word  that  a  straggler  from  the  camp  was 
imprisoned  in  her  greenhouse,  and,  going  there,  I  saw  it  poised 
in  the  air,  sucking  honey  from  the  blossom  of  an  orange-tree. 
The  flower  was  evidently  bent  down  slightly,  as  if  the  bird  rested 
its  bill  upon  it  to  aid  its  wings  in  supporting  its  body  in  the  air, 
or  to  steady  it.  When  it  wished  to  go  out,  it  went  straight  to 
the  window  at  which  it  had  entered,  and,  finding  it  closed,  flew 
rapidly  round  the  large  conservatory,  examining  all  parts  of  it, 
without  once  striking  the  glass  or  beating  its  wings  against  the 
wall,  as  the  more  timid  of  the  feathered  tribe  are  apt  to  do.  No 
sooner,  however,  was  a  small  casement  opened,  than  it  darted 
through  it  like  an  arrow. 


CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

New  York,  clear  Atmosphere  and  gay  Dresses. — Omnibuses. — Naming  of 
Streets. — Visit  to  Audubon. — Croton  Aqueduct. — Harpers'  Printing 
Establishment. — Large  Sale  of  Works  by  English  and  American  Authors. 
— Cheapness  of  Books. — International  Copyright. — Sale  of  Eugene  Sue's 
"Wandering  Jew." — Tendency  of  the  Work. — Mr.  Gallatin  on  Indian 
Corn. — War  with  Mexico. — Facility  of  raising  Troops. — Dr.  Dewey 
preaching  against  War. — Cause  of  Influence  of  Unitarians. — Geological 
Excursion  to  Albany. — Helderberg  War. — Voting  Thanks  to  the  Third 
House. — Place-hunting. — Spring  Flowers — Geology  andTaconic  System. 

May  7,  1846. — ON  our  return  to  New  York,  we  were  struck 
with  the  brightness  of  the  atmosphere  in  spring,  arising  not  merely 
from  the  absence  of  smoke,  but  from  the  quantity  of  solar  light 
as  compared  to  England,  this  city  being  in  the  same  latitude  as 
Naples.  The  unsullied  purity  of  the  air  makes  gay  and  brilliant 
colors  in  dress  and  furniture  appropriate. 

Every  fortnight  the  "  Journal  des  Modes"  is  received  from 
France,  and  the  ladies  conform  strictly  to  the  Parisian  costume. 
Except  at  balls  and  large  parties,  they  wear  high  dresses,  and, 
as  usual  in  mercantile  communities,  spare  no  expense.  Embroi 
dered  muslin,  of  the  finest  and  costliest  kind,  is  much  worn  ;  and 
my  wife  learnt  that  sixteen  guineas  were  not  unfrequently  given  for 
a  single  pocket  handkerchief.  Extravagantly  expensive  fans,  with 
ruby  or  emerald  pins,  are  also  common.  I  had  heard  it  said  in 
France  that  no  orders  sent  to  Lyons  for  the  furnishing  of  private 
mansions,  are  on  so  grand  a  scale  as  some  of  those  received  from 
New  York ;  and  I  can  well  believe  it,  for  we  saw  many  houses 
gorgeously  fitted  up  with  satin  and  velvet  draperies,  rich  Axmin- 
ster  carpets,  marble  and  inlaid  tables,  and  large  looking-glasses, 
the  style  in  general  being  Parisian  rather  than  English.  It  was 
much  more  rare  here  than  at  Boston  to  see  a  library  forming 
part  of  a  suite  of  reception-rooms,  or  even  a  single  book-case  in  a 
drawing-room,  nor  are  pictures  so  common  here. 


CHAP.  XXXIX.]  OMNIBUSES.  249 

In  the  five  months  since  we  were  last  in  this  metropolis,  whole 
streets  had  been  built,  and  several  squares  finished  in  the  northern 
or  fashionable  end  of  the  town,  to  which  the  merchants  are  now 
resorting,  leaving  the  business  end,  near  the  Battery,  where  they 
formerly  lived.  Hence  there  is  a  constant  increase  of  omnibuses 
passing  through  Broadway,  and  other  streets  running  north  and 
south .  Groups  of  twelve  of  these  vehicles  may  be  seen  at  once, 
each  with  a  single  driver,  for  wages  are  too  high  to  support  a 
cad.  Each  omnibus  has  an  opening  in  the  roof,  through  which 
the  money  is  paid  to  the  coachman.  We  observed,  as  one 
woman  after  another  got  out,  any  man  sitting  near  the  door, 
though  a  stranger,  would  jump  down  to  hand  her  out,  and,  if  it 
was  raining,  would  hold  an  umbrella  over  her,  frequently  offering, 
in  that  case,  to  escort  her  to  a  shop,  attentions  which  are  com 
monly  accepted  and  received  by  the  women  as  matters  of  course. 

All  the  streets  which  cross  Broadway,  run  east  and  west,  and 
are  numbered,  so  that  they  have  now  arrived  at  146th-street — 
a  mode  of  designating  the  different  parts  of  the  metropolis  worthy 
of  imitation  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  since  experience  has 
now  proved  that  there  is  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  mind  an  inherent 
poverty  of  invention  in  matters  of  nomenclature.  For  want  of 
some  municipal  regulations  like  those  of  New  York,  the  same 
names  are  indefinitely  multiplied  in  every  great  city,  and  letters, 
after  wandering  over  all  the  streets  bearing  the  same  appellation, 
to  the  infinite  inconvenience  and  cost  of  the  post-office,  are  at 
length  received,  if  haply  they  ever  reach  their  destination,  long 
after  they  are  due. 

The  low  island  on  which  New  York  is  built,  is  composed  of 
granite  and  gneiss  covered  with  "  drift"  and  boulders.  The 
original  surface  being  very  uneven,  the  municipality  has  fixed 
upon  a  certain  grade  or  level  to  which  all  heights  must  be 
lowered  by  blasting  the  rocks  or  by  carting  away  the  gravel, 
and  up  to  which  all  the  cavities  must  be  raised.  Besides  other 
advantages  of  this  leveling  process,  the  ground  is  said  to  become 
more  healthy  and  free  from  malaria,  there  being  no  longer  any 
stagnant  pools  of  water  standing  in  the  hollows. 

May  10. — Paid  a  visit  to  Mr.  Audubon,  the  celebrated  orni- 

!<* 


250  CROTON  AQUEDUCT.  [CHAP.  XXXIX. 

thologist,  at  his  delightful  residence  on  the  banks  of  the  Hudson, 
north  of  Bloomingdale.  His  son  had  just  returned  from  Texas, 
where  he  had  been  studying  the  natural  history  of  that  country, 
especially  the  mammalia,  and  was  disappointed  at  the  few  oppor 
tunities  he  had  enjoyed  of  seeing  the  wild  land  quadrupeds  in  a  state 
of  activity,  so  as  to  observe  their  habits.  I  told  him  I  had  been 
equally  surprised  at  the  apparent  scarcity  of  this  tribe  in  the 
native  forests  of  the  United  States.  This  whole  class  of  animals, 
he  said,  ought  to  be  regarded  as  properly  nocturnal ;  for  not 
merely  the  feline  tribe  and  the  foxes,  the  weasels  and  bats,  shun 
the  daylight,  but  many  others  feed  partly  by  night,  most  of  the 
squirrels  and  bears,  for  example.  The  ruminants  no  doubt  are 
an  exception,  yet  even  the  deer  and  the  buffalo,  like  the  wild 
horse,  travel  chiefly  in  the  night. 

From  Mr.  Audubon's  I  went  to  Highbridge,  where  the  Croton 
water  is  made  to  play  for  the  amusement  of  visitors,  and  is  thrown 
up  in  a  column  to  the  height  of  120  feet. 

I  went  also  to  see  the  reservoir,  inclosing  an  area  of  no  less 
than  thirty-six  acres,  from  which  the  water  is  distributed  to  all 
parts  of  New  York.  In  this  artificial  lake  all  the  river  sediment 
is  deposited,  the  basin  being  divided  into  two  parts,  so  that  one 
may  be  cleaned  out  while  the  other  is  in  use.  The  tunnel  or  pipe 
conveying  the  water  for  a  distance  of  more  than  thirty  miles,  from 
the  source  to  the  Harlem  Hiver,  is  so  large,  that  the  chief  engineer 
and  commissioners  of  the  works  were  able  to  float  down  it  in  a 
flat-bottomed  boat  when  it  was  first  opened,  in  July,  1842. 

While  at  New  York,  we  were  taken  by  our  literary  friend, 
Mr.  Cogswell,  over  the  printing  and  publishing  establishment  of 
the  Harpers,  the  largest  in  America,  and  only  surpassed,  in  the 
scale  of  its  operations,  by  two  or  three  in  Great  Britain.  They 
give  employment  to  three  hundred  men,  manufacture  their  own 
types  and  paper,  and  have  a  "  bookbindery"  under  the  same  roof; 
for,  in  order  to  get  out,  with  the  utmost  dispatch,  the  reprints  of 
foreign  works  not  entitled  to  copyright,  they  require  to  be  inde 
pendent  of  all  aid  from  other  traders.  We  were  shown  a  fire 
proof  vault,  in  which  stereotype  plates,  valued  at  300,000  dollars, 
are  deposited.  In  one  of  the  upper  stories  a  long  line  of  steam- 


CHAP.  XXXIX.]       HARPERS'  PRINTING-OFFICE.  251 

presses  was  throwing  off  sheets  of  various  works,  and  the  greater 
number  were  occupied  with  the  printing  of  a  large  illustrated 
Bible,  and  Morse's  Geography  for  the  use  of  schools.  In  1845, 
the  Harpers  sold  two  millions  of  volumes,  some  of  them,  it  is  true, 
being  only  styled  numbers,  but  these  often  contain  a  reprint  of  an 
entire  English  novel,  originally  published  in  two  or  three  volumes, 
at  the  cost  of  a  guinea  and  a  half,  the  same  being  sold  here  for 
one  or  two  shillings.  Several  of  Bulwer's  tales  are  among  these, 
40,000  copies  of  his  "Last  of  the  Barons"  having  just  issued 
from  this  house.  It  may,  indeed,  be  strictly  said  of  English 
writers  in  general,  that  they  are  better  known  in  America  than 
in  Europe. 

Of  the  best  English  works  of  fiction,  published  at  thirty-one 
shillings  in  England,  and  for  about  sixpence  here,  it  is  estimated 
that  about  ten  times  as  many  copies  are  sold  in  the  United  States 
as  in  Great  Britain  ;  nor  need  we  wonder  at  this,  when  we  con 
sider  that  day  laborers  in  an  American  village  often  purchase  a 
novel  by  Scott,  Bulwer,  or  Dickens,  or  a  popular  history,  such 
as  Alison's  Europe  (published  at  thirteen  pounds  in  England  and 
sixteen  shillings  in  America),  and  read  it  at  spare  moments,  while 
persons  in  a  much  higher  station  in  England  are  debarred  from 
a  similar  intellectual  treat  by  considerations  of  economy. 

It  might  have  been  apprehended  that,  where  a  daily  newspaper 
can  be  bought  for  a  halfpenny,  and  a  novel  for  sixpence,  the  public 
mind  would  be  so  taken  up  with  politics  and  light  reading,  that 
no  time  would  be  left  for  the  study  of  history,  divinity,  and  the 
graver  periodical  literature.  But,  on  the  contrary,  experience 
has  proved  that,  when  the  habit  and  facility  of  reading  has  been 
acquired  by  the  perusal  even  of  trashy  writings,  there  is  a  steady 
increase  in  the  number  of  those  who  enter  on  deeper  subjects. 
I  was  glad  to  hear  that,  in  proportion  as  the  reading  public 
augments  annually,  the  quality  of  the  books  read  is  decidedly 
improving.  About  four  years  ago,  40,000  copies  were  printed 
of  the  ordinary  common-place  novels  published  in  England,  of 
which  sort  they  now  only  sell  about  8000. 

It  might  also  have  been  feared  that  the  cheapness  of  foreign 
works  unprotected  by  copyright,  would  have  made  it  impossible 


252  CHEAPNESS  OF  BOOKS.  [CHAP.  XXXIX. 

for  native  authors  to  obtain  a  price  capable  of  remunerating  them 
highly,  as  well  as  their  publishers.  But  such  is  not  the  case. 
Very  large  editions  of  Prescott's  "  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,"  and 
of  his  "  Mexico,"  and  "  Peru,"  have  been  sold  at  a  high  price  ; 
and  when  Mr.  Harper  stated  to  me  his  estimate  of  the  original 
value  of  the  copyright  of  these  popular  works,  it  appeared  to  me 
that  an  English  author  could  hardly  have  obtained  as  much  in 
his  own  country.*  The  comparative  cheapness  of  American 
books,  the  best  editions  of  which  are  by  no  means  in  small 
print,  seems  at  first  unintelligible,  when  we  consider  the  dearness 
of  labor,  which  enters  so  largely  into  the  price  of  printing,  paper, 
and  binding.  But,  first,  the  number  of  readers,  thanks  to  the 
free-schools,  is  prodigiously  great,  and  always  augmenting  in  a 
higher  ratio  even  than  the  population ;  and,  secondly,  there  is  a 
fixed  determination  on  the  part  of  the  people  at  large  to  endure 
any  taxation,  rather  than  that  which  would  place  books  and 
newspapers  beyond  their  reach.  Several  politicians  declared  to 
me  that  not  only  an  income  tax,  but  a  window  tax,  would  be 
preferred  ;  and  "  this  last,"  said  they,  "  wrould  scarcely  shut  out 
the  light  from  a  greater  number  of  individuals."  The  duty  on 
paper,  in  the  United  States,  is  trifling,  when  compared  to  that 
paid  in  Great  Britain.  Mr.  Chambers  informs  us,  that  the 
Government  duty  of  5000Z.,  paid  by  him  for  his  Miscellany,  in 
twenty  volumes,  was  equal  in  amount  to  the  whole  profits  of  that 
publication.  The  cost  of  advertisements,  in  America,  is  also 
small.  One  of  my  American  friends  sent  over  to  a  London 
publisher  250  copies  of  his  work,  charging  him  4s.  6d.  each. 

*  A  letter  dated  April  15,  1849,  was  lately  shown  me  from  the  Harpers, 
with  permission  to  make  known  its  contents,  in  which  they  mentioned,  that 
having  been  authorized  by  Mr.  Macaulay  to  publish  in  America  his  "  His 
tory  of  England,"  they  had  printed  six  editions  at  various  prices  varying 
from  four  dollars  to  fifty  cents  (sixteen  shillings  and  sixpence  to  two  shillings) . 
At  the  expiration  of  the  first  three  months,  they  had  sold  40,000  copies,  and 
other  booksellers  who  had  issued  independent  editions  had  sold  about  20,000 ; 
so  that  60,000  copies  had  been  purchased  in  the  United  States  at  a  time 
when  about  13,000  had  been  disposed  of  by  Longman  and  Co.,  in  London, 
at  the  price  of  11.  12s.  each.  As  the  cheap  American  editions  were  only 
just  brought  into  the  market  at  the  date  of  this  letter,  the  principal  sale  of 
the  book  was  but  commencing. 


CHAP.  XXXIX.]       INTERNATIONAL  COPYRIGHT.  253 

After  paying  entrance  duties,  and  necessary  outlay  for  advertise 
ments  in  London,  and  the  agency,  it  was  found  that  the  price 
must  be  as  high  as  1 6s. 

The  party  who  are  in  favor  of  an  international  copyright  be 
tween  England  and  the  United  States,  seems  to  be  steadily 
gaining  strength  among  the  booksellers,  publishers,  and  authors, 
although  the  editors  of  newspapers  and  their  readers  may  per 
haps  oppose  the  measure  for  some  time.  The  number  of  reprisals 
now  made  by  English  speculators  are  very  numerous.  According 
to  a  statement  lately  presented  to  Congress  by  Mr.  Jay,  of  New 
York,  there  are  about  600  original  American  works  "pirated" 
in  Great  Britain ;  or,  to  speak  more  correctly,  while  the  law 
remains  in  its  present  state,  reprinted  without  leave  of  their 
American  authors,  or  any  pecuniary  acknowledgment  to  them. 

Many  are  of  opinion  that  the  small  print  of  cheap  editions  in 
the  United  States,  will  seriously  injure  the  eyesight  of  the  rising 
generation,  especially  as  they  often  read  in  railway  cars,  devouring 
whole  novels,  printed  in  newspapers,  in  very  inferior  type.  Mr. 
Everett,  speaking  of  this  literature,  in  an  address  to  the  students 
of  Harvard  College,  said,  "If  cheap  it  can  be  called,  which  begins 
by  costing  a  man  his  eyes,  and  ends  by  perverting  his  taste  and 
morals." 

As  an  illustration  of  the  mischievous  tendency  of  the  indiscrim 
inate  reading  of  popular  works  by  the  multitude,  when  the  higher 
classes  and  clergy  can  exert  little  or  no  control  in  the  selection 
of  the  books  read,  the  wonderful  success  of  Eugene  Sue's  "  Wan 
dering  Jew"  was  pointed  out  to  me  by  many,  with  no  small 
concern.  This  led  me  to  ask  Mr.  Harper  how  many  copies  he 
had  disposed  of,  and  he  answered,  "80,000,  issued  in  different 
shapes,  and  at  various  prices."  It  had  so  often  been  thrust  into 
my  hands  in  railway  cars,  and  so  much  talked  of,  that,  in  the 
course  of  my  journey,  I  began  to  read  it  in  self-defense  ;  and, 
having  begun,  could  not  stop  till  I  had  finished  the  whole, 
although  the  style  of  the  original  loses  half  its  charms  in  an 
imperfect  translation.  "  Le  vieux  dragon,"  for  example,  is 
always  rendered  the  "  old  dragon,"  instead  of  "  dragoon,"  and 
the  poetry  of  a  brilliant  passage  is  nearly  destroyed  by  "defense" 


254  « THE  WANDERING  JEW."         [CHAP.  XXXIX. 

being  translated  "  defense,"  instead  of  "  barrier,"  with  other 
blunders  equally  unpardonable.  Yet  the  fascination  of  the  orig 
inal,  and  its  power  to  fix  the  attention,  triumph  over  these  dis 
advantages,  and  over  the  violence  done  to  probability  in  the 
general  plot,  and  over  the  extravagance  of  many  of  its  details. 
The  gross,  sensual,  and  often  licentious  descriptions  in  which  the 
author  indulges,  in  some  scenes,  and  still  more,  such  sentimental 
immorality  as  is  involved  in  the  sympathy  demanded  for  Hardy's 
love  and  intrigue  with  a  married  woman  (he  being  represented  as 
the  model  of  a  high-minded  philanthropist),  make  one  feel  the  con 
trast  of  such  a  work  with  the  chaste  and  pure  effusions  of  Scott's 
genius.  Yet  there  is  much  pure  feeling,  many  touches  of  tenderness 
in  the  tale,  and  many  passages  fitted  to  awaken  our  best  affec 
tions.  Even  the  false  political  economy  bordering  on  communism,  is 
redeemed  by  the  tendency  of  the  book  to  excite  sympathy  for  the 
sufferings,  destitution,  and  mental  degradation  of  the  poor.  The 
dramatic  power  displayed  in  many  scenes,  is  of  a  high  order ;  as 
when  the  Jesuit  Rodin,  receiving  his  credentials  from  Rome,  is 
suddenly  converted  into  the  superior  of  the  haughty  chief  to  whom 
he  had  been  previously  the  humble  secretary,  and  where  Dago- 
bert's  wife,  under  the  direction  of  her  confessor,  refuses,  in  opposi 
tion  to  a  husband  whom  she  loves  and  respects,  to  betray  the 
place  of  concealment  of  two  young  orphans,  the  victims  of  a  vile 
conspiracy.  In  this  part  of  the  narrative,  moreover,  the  beauty 
of  the  devotional  character  of  the  female  mind  is  done  full  justice 
to,  while  the  evils  of  priestly  domination  are  exhibited  in  their 
true  colors.  The  imprisonment  of  a  young  girl,  of  strong  mind 
and  superior  understanding,  in  a  madhouse,  until  she  is  worked 
upon  almost  to  doubt  her  own  sanity,  are  described  with  much 
delicacy  of  feeling  and  pathos,  and  make  the  reader  shudder  at 
the  facility  with  which  such  institutions,  if  not  subject  to  public 
inspection,  may  be,  and  have  been  abused. 

The  great  moral  and  object  of  the  whole  piece,  is  to  expose  the 
worldly  ambition  of  the  Romanist  clergy,  especially  of  the  Jesuits, 
and  the  injury  done,  not  only  to  the  intellectual  progress  of  society 
at  large,  but  to  the  peace  and  happiness  of  private  families,  by 
their  perpetual  meddling  with  domestic  concerns.  That  the  shafts 


CHAP.  XXXIX.]     MR.  GALLATIN  ON  INDIAN  CORN.  255 

of  this  satire  have  not  missed  their  aim,  has  been  proved,  among 
other  evidences,  by  its  having  been  thought  politic,  even  in  En 
gland,  to  circulate,  chiefly,  it  is  said,  among  the  Irish  Catholics,  an 
"  Adaptation  of  the  Wandering  Jew,  from  the  original  of  Eugene 
Sue."  In  this  singular  re-cast  of  the  French  romance,  which  I 
have  perused,  the  Russian  police  is  every  where  substituted  for 
the  Jesuits,  and  Rodin  becomes  the  tool  of  the  Czar,  intriguing 
in  French  politics,  instead  of  the  servant  of  the  successor  of  Ig 
natius  Loyola.  On  the  whole,  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  the 
good  preponderates  over  the  evil,  in  the  influence  exerted  on  the 
million,  even  by  such  a  romance.  It  has  a  refining  rather  than 
a  corrupting  effect,  and  may  lead  on  to  the  study  of  works  of  a 
more  exalting  character.  The  great  step  is  gained,  when  the 
powers  of  the  imagination  have  been  stimulated  and  the  dormant 
and  apathetic  mind  awakened  and  lifted  above  the  prosaic  mono 
tony  of  every-day  life. 

May  9. — Called  with  a  letter  of  introduction  on  Mr.  Gallatin, 
well  known  by  a  long  and  distinguished  career  in  political  life. 
As  a  diplomatist  in  London,  he  negotiated  the  original  Oregon 
treaty  with  Great  Britain,  and  has  now,  at  the  age  of  eighty- 
two,  come  out  with  several  able  and  spirited  pamphlets,  to  de 
monstrate  to  his  countrymen  that  their  national  honor  would  not 
be  compromised  by  accepting  the  terms  offered  by  the  British 
Cabinet.  Being  at  the  same  time  an  experienced  financier,  he 
has  told  them  plainly,  if  they  will  go  to  war,  how  much  it  will 
cost  them  annually,  and  what  taxes  they  should  make  up  their 
minds  to  submit  to  cheerfully,  if  they  would  carry  on  a  campaign 
with  honor  and  spirit  against  such  an  enemy. 

In  the  course  of  conversation  I  found  that  Mr.  Gallatin  was 
of  opinion  that  the  indigenous  civilization  of  several  Indian  tribes, 
and  of  the  Mexicans  and  Peruvians  among  others,  was  mainly  due 
to  the  possession  of  a  grain  so  productive,  and,  when  dried  in  the  sun, 
so  easily  kept  for  many  years,  as  the  maize  or  Indian  corn.  The 
potato,  which,  when  healthy,  can  rarely  be  stored  up  and  pre 
served  till  the  next  harvest,  may  be  said,  on  the  contrary,  to  be  a 
food  on  which  none  but  an  improvident  race  would  lean  for  sup 
port.  "  I  have  long  been  convinced,"  said  Mr.  Gallatin,  "  that 


256  WAR  WITH  MEXICO.  [CHAP.  XXXIX. 

the  Indian  corn  has  also  given  a  powerful  impulse  to  the  rapid 
settlement  of  the  whites  in  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  other 
western  states.  In  one  of  my  first  excursions  to  the  west,  I  saw 
a  rnan  felling  trees  in  March,  who,  when  I  returned  in  October, 
had  harvested  a  crop  of  Indian  corn,  grown  on  the  very  spot. 
He  had  also  the  leaves  and  stems  of  the  plant  to  serve  for  winter 
fodder  for  his  cattle.  He  was  an  emigrant,  newly  arrived,  and 
entirely  without  the  capital  indispensable  to  enable  him  to  culti 
vate  wheat,  which  must  have  been  twelve  or  thirteen  months  in 
the  ground  before  it  could  be  reaped." 

Next  day  the  stirring  news  of  the  invasion  of  the  Mexican 
territory  by  the  American  army,  reached  New  York,  and  I  met 
the  news-boys,  in  every  street,  crying  out,  "War  with  Mexico!" 
Soon  afterward  I  saw  the  walls  covered  with  placards,  headed 
with  the  words,  "  Ho,  for  the  halls  of  the  Montezumas  !" 

The  mayor  had  called  a  public  meeting  to  express  sympathy 
with  the  President  and  the  war-party  at  Washington.  This 
meeting  was  held  in  the  Park,  and  although  it  may  have  served 
the  purpose  of  the  democratic  party,  it  was  certainly  a  signal 
failure,  if  any  strong  expression  of  popular  feeling  in  favor  of  such 
a  war  was  looked  for.  In  the  crowd  I  heard  nothing  but  Irish, 
Scotch,  and  German  accents,  and  the  only  hearty  cheer  which 
any  one  orator  could  draw,  even  from  this  mob  of  foreigners, 
was  obtained  by  representing  the  Mexicans  as  acting  under  the 
influence  of  British  gold. 

I  met  with  no  one  person  in  society  who  defended  the  aggres 
sion  on  the  Mexican  territory  ;  but,  as  they  can  not  prevent  it, 
they  endeavor,  each  in  his  way,  to  comfort  themselves  that  the 
mischief  is  no  worse,  some  saying,  it  will  be  a  less  evil  than 
fighting  with  Great  Britain  ;  others  that  it  will  furnish  employ 
ment  for  a  host  of  turbulent  spirits ;  while  some  merchants  hint 
that  the  democratic  party,  had  they  been  economical,  might 
have  lowered  the  tariff,  and  carried  out  their  dangerous  theory 
of  free  trade,  whereas  now  they  will  plunge  the  nation  into  debt, 
and  be  compelled  to  resort  to  high  duties,  which  will  "  protect 
native  industry."  The  dissatisfaction  of  others  is  unbounded  ; 
they  dread  the  annexation  of  a  region  containing  five  millions  of 


CHAP.  XXXIX.]  RAISING  TROOPS.  257 

Indians,  which,  say  they,  will  deteriorate  the  general  standard  of 
the  white  population  ; — they  deplore  the  development  of  a  love 
for  military  glory,  a  passion  inconsistent  with  all  true  republican 
principles  ; — and  one  friend  observed  to  me,  "  You  will  soon  see 
a  successful  soldier,  wholly  unknown  to  all  of  us  at  this  moment, 
a  man  unversed  in  civil  affairs,  raised  to  the  Presidentship."  I 
asked  whether,  in  a  country  where  nearly  all  are  industriously 
employed,  it  will  be  possible  to  find  recruits  for  foreign  service. 
Nothing,  they  reply,  is  more  easy.  "  Our  broad  Indian  frontier 
has  nurtured  a  daring  and  restless  population,  which  loves  ex 
citement  and  adventure,  and  in  the  southern  states  there  are 
numbers  of  whites  to  whom  military  service  would  be  a  boon, 
because  slavery  has  degraded  labor."  A  week  later  I  received  a 
letter  from  a  correspondent  in  the  south,  who  said,  "  Such  is  the 
military  fever  in  Arkansas,  Louisiana,  Alabama,  and  Mississippi, 
that  these  states  alone  would  furnish  50,000  men,  if  required  ; 
and  in  many  districts  we  are  in  fear  of  such  an  enlistment  of  the 
white  population,  that  there  will  be  too  few  left  at  home  to  serve 
as  a  police  for  the  negroes.  Married  men  are  going,  as  well  as 
bachelors,  lawyers,  medical  men,  and  schoolmasters,  many  of 
whom  have  no  taste  whatever  for  fighting  or  foreign  service,  but 
they  know  that  to  have  served  a  year  in  a  campaign,  to  have 
been  in  a  battle,  or  have  been  wounded,  would  advance  them 
more  in  an  election,  or  even  in  their  several  professions,  than  any 
amount  of  study  or  acquired  knowledge." 

The  Sunday  following  we  heard  a  sermon  by  the  Rev.  Orville 
Dewey,  in  which  this  spirit  of  territorial  aggrandizement,  this 
passion  for  war,  these  false  notions  of  national  honor  and  glory, 
were  characterized  as  unchristian,  and  indicating  a  low  standard 
of  private  as  well  as  public  morality.  I  remarked  to  a  New 
England  acquaintance,  who  was  one  of  the  large  congregation, 
that  whatever  might  be  said  against  the  voluntary  system,  the 
pulpit  in  America  seemed  to  me  more  independent  than  the  press. 
"  Because  every  newspaper,"  he  replied,  "  is  supported  by  half 
yearly  or  annual  subscribers,  and  no  editor  dares  write  against 
the  popular  sentiment.  He  knows  that  a  dagger  is  always  sus 
pended  over  him  by  a  thread,  and  if  he  presumed  to  run  counter 


258  DR.  DEWEY— UNITARIANISM.       [CHAP.  XXXIX. 

to  the  current,  his  table  would  be  covered  next  morning-  with 
letters  each  beginning  with  the  dreaded  words,  '  Stop  my  paper.' 
He  has  made  a  bargain,  like  that  of  Dr.  Faustus,  with  the  devil, 
bartering  away  his  immortal  soul  for  a  few  thousand  dollars." 
When  I  afterward  reflected  on  this  alleged  tyranny  of  regular 
subscribers,  it  occurred  to  me  that  the  evil  must  be  in  a  great 
degree  mitigated  by  the  cheapness  and  variety  of  daily  prints, 
each  the  organ  of  some  distinct  party  or  shade  of  opinion,  and 
great  numbers  of  them  freely  taken  in  at  every  reading-room  and 
every  hotel. 

I  might  say  of  Dr.  Dewey's  discourse,  as  I  have  already  said 
of  the  preaching  of  the  Unitarians  generally,  that,  without  want 
ing  spirituality,  it  was  more  practical  and  less  doctrinal  than  the 
majority  of  sermons  to  which  I  have  been  accustomed  to  listen. 
But  I  should  mislead  my  readers,  if  I  gave  them  to  understand 
that  they  could  frequent  churches  of  this  denomination  without 
risk  of  sometimes  having  their  feelings  offended  by  hearing  doc 
trines  they  have  been  taught  to  reverence  treated  slightingly,  or 
even  with  contempt.  On  one  occasion  (and  it  was  the  only  one 
in  my  experience),  I  was  taken,  when  at  Boston,  to  hear  an  emi 
nent  Unitarian  preacher,  who  was  prevented  by  illness  from  offi 
ciating,  and  his  place  was  supplied  by  a  self-satisfied  young  man, 
who,  having  talked  dogmatically  on  points  contested  by  many  a 
rationalist,  made  it  clear  that  he  commiserated  the  weak  minds 
of  those  who  adhered  to  articles  of  faith  rejected  by  his  church. 
If  this  too  common  method  of  treating  theological  subjects  be  ill 
calculated  to  convince  or  conciliate  dissentients,  it  is  equally 
reprehensible  from  its  tendency  to  engender,  in  the  minds  of  those 
who  assent,  a  Pharisaical  feeling  of  self-gratulation  that  they  are 
not  as  other  sectarians  are. 

T  can  only  account  for  the  power  which  the  Unitarians  have 
exerted,  and  are  now  exerting,  in  forwarding  the  great  education 
al  movement  in  America,  in  the  face  of  that  almost  superstitious 
prejudice  with  which  their  theology  is  regarded  by  nineteen- 
twentieths  of  the  population,  by  attributing  it  to  the  love  of 
intellectual  progress  which  animates  both  their  clergy  and  laity, 
and  the  deep  conviction  they  are  known  to  feel  that  public  moral- 


CHAP.  XXXIX.]  EXCURSION  TO  ALBANY.  259 

ity  and  happiness  can  only  be  insured  by  spreading  an  elevated 
standard  of  popular  education  throughout  the  masses.  In  their 
enthusiastic  pursuit  of  this  great  end,  they  are  acknowledged  to 
have  no  thought  of  making  proselytes  to  any  system  of  religious 
doctrines,  and  are  therefore  trusted  in  the  management  of  schools 
by  the  parents  of  children  of  the  most  opposite  persuasions.  In 
regard  to  their  own  faith,  some  misapprehension  has  arisen,  in 
consequence  of  the  name  they  bear,  which  was  not  chosen  by 
themselves,  but  to  which,  on  the  contrary,  they  have  objections, 
such  as  members  of  the  Anglican  Church  might  feel  if  some  such 
name  as  Anti-transubstantiationists,  or  any  term  which  simply 
expressed  their  opposition  to  some  one  article  of  the  Romanist 
creed,  had  been  fixed  upon  them.  When  the  rigid  Calvinism  of 
the  old  Puritans  caused  a  schism  in  New  England,  the  seceders 
wished  to  free  themselves  from  the  fetters  of  a  creed,  and  to  take 
the  Gospel  alone  as  their  standard  of  faith.  They  were  naturally, 
therefore,  averse  to  accept  a  name  which  might  be  generally 
supposed  to  imply  that  they  attached  a  prominent  importance  to 
the  negation  of  any  one  doctrine  professed  by  other  Christians. 
"I  desire,"  said  Charming,  "  to  wear  the  livery  of  no  party; 
but  we  accept  the  appellation  which  others  have  imposed  upon 
us,  because  it  expresses  what  we  believe  to  be  a  truth,  and 
therefore  we  ought  not  to  shrink  from  the  reproaches  cast  upon 
it.  But,  had  the  name  been  more  honored,  had  no  popular  cry 
been  raised  against  it,  I  would  gladly  have  thrown  it  off."* 

May  11. — Sailed  from  New  York  to  Albany  in  a  steamer, 
which  carried  me  at  the  rate  of  eighteen  miles  an  hour  through 
the  beautiful  scenery  of  the  Hudson  Hiver.  I  had  been  invited 
by  two  of  the  state  surveyors  of  New  York  to  make  an  excursion 
with  them  to  the  north  of  Albany,  and  to  discuss  in  the  field 
some  controverted  points  respecting  the  geology  of  the  oldest  fos- 
siliferous  strata.  There  was  a  physician  on  board,  who,  having 
been  settled  for  twenty-six  years  in  Virginia,  had  now  come  back, 
after  that  long  absence,  to  see  his  native  state.  His  admiration 
and  wonder  at  the  progress  made  by  New  York  in  a  quarter  of 
a  century  were  unbounded.  Speaking  of  his  adopted  country, 
*  Channing's  Works,  vol.  iii.  p.  210. 


260  HELDERBERG  WAR.  [CHAP.  XXXIX. 

he  exclaimed,  "  We  have  been  left  far  behind  in  the  race."  I 
suggested,  that  if,  twenty-six  years  ago,  a  period  had  been  fixed 
upon  by  law  for  the  emancipation  of  their  slaves,  Virginia  might, 
ere  this,  have  been  relieved  of  nearly  all  her  negro  population, 
so  great  has  been  the  migration  of  negroes  to  the  south.  "  It  is 
useless,"  he  said,  "to  discuss  the  practicability  of  such  a  measure, 
while  the  majority  of  our  legislators,  having  been  born  slave 
holders,  are  not  convinced  of  its  desirability."  While  my  com 
panion  was  absorbed  in  admiration  at  the  improvement  of  "  the 
Empire  State,"  my  thoughts  and  feelings  took  a  very  different  turn, 
when  I  learned  that  "the  Helderberg  war,"  which  I  have  alluded 
to  in  my  former  "  Travels,"^  is  still  going  on,  and  seems  as  far 
from  a  termination  as  ever.  The  agricultural  population  through 
out  many  populous  counties  have  now  been  in  arms  for  eight 
years,  to  resist  payment  of  rents  due  to  their  landlords,  in  spite 
of  the  decisions  of  the  courts  of  law  against  them.  Large  con 
tributions  have  been  made  toward  an  insurrectionary  fund — one 
of  its  objects  being  to  support  a  newspaper,  edited  Ijy  a  Chartist 
refugee  from  England,  in  which  the  most  dangerous  anti-social 
doctrines  are  promulgated.  The  "  anti-renters"  have  not  only 
set  the  whole  militia  of  the  state  at  defiance,  in  more  than  one 
campaign,  but  have  actually  killed  a  sheriff's  officer,  who  was 
distraining  for  rent  !  If  any  thing  could  add  to  the  disgrace 
which  such  proceedings  reflect  on  the  political  administration  of 
affairs  in  New  York,  it  is  the  fact  that  the  insurgents  would 
probably  have  succumbed  ere  this,  had  they  not  been  buoyed  up 
by  hopes  of  legislative  interference  in  their  favor,  held  out  to  them 
by  popularity-hunting  candidates  for  the  governorship,  and  other 
official  places. 

In  the  newspapers  of  the  day,  a  scene  described  as  having 
occurred  at  the  close  of  the  legislative  session  in  Albany  excited 
my  curiosity.  One  of  the  members  of  the  House  of  Representa 
tives  moved  a  vote  of  thanks  "  to  the  gentlemen  of  the  third 
house  for  the  regularity  of  their  attendance  and  the  courtesy 
with  which  they  had  conducted  themselves."  The  motion  was 
seconded,  read  from  the  chair  amidst  great  laughter,  and  then 
*  Vol.  i.  p.  68. 


CHAP.  XXXIX.]  "THE  THIRD  HOUSE."  261 

allowed  to  drop.  I  inquired  what  might  be  the  meaning  of  this 
joke,  and  was  asked  in  reply  whether  I  had  read  the  letters  of 
Jesse  Hoyt  and  others,  edited  by  Mackenzie  ?  I  had,  indeed, 
purchased  the  pamphlet  alluded  to,  containing  a  selection  from 
an  immense  mass  (said  to  amount  to  twenty-five  volumes)  of  the 
private  and  confidential  correspondence  of  official  men,  left  acci 
dentally  by  them,  on  a  change  of  administration,  in  the  custom 
house  of  New  York.  All  these  had  been  printed  for  the  benefit 
of  the  public  by  their  successors.  The  authenticity  of  the  docu 
ments  made  known  by  this  gentlemanlike  stroke  of  party  tactics, 
purporting  to  be  penned  by  men  who  had  filled  high  places  in 
the  State  and  Federal  Governments,  had  been  placed  beyond  a 
doubt ;  for  the  writers  had  attempted  to  obtain  an  injunction  in 
the  law  courts  to  stop  the  publication,  claiming  the  copyright  of 
letters  which  they  had  written.  Some  time  before  this  conver 
sation,  a  merchant  of  Boston,  who  wished  me  to  look  only  on  the 
bright  side  of  their  institutions,  and  who  was  himself  an  optimist, 
had  said  to  me,  "  Our  politicians  work  in  a  glass  hive,  so  that 
you  always  see  the  worst  of  them ;  whereas  your  public  men  can 
throw  a  decent  vail  of  secrecy  over  much  that  may  be  selfish  and 
sordid  in  the  motives  of  their  conduct.  Hence  the  scandal  of 
your  court  and  cabinets  is  only  divulged  to  posterity,  a  hundred 
years  after  the  events,  in  private  memoirs."  Unfortunately  for 
this  theory,  a  glance  at  the  Mackenzie  letters  was  enough  to 
teach  me,  that,  if  the  American  bees  work  in  a  glass  hive,  the 
glass  is  not  quite  so  transparent  as  my  friend  would  have  led  me 
to  believe.  The  explanation  of  the  satirical  motion  made  in  the 
House  at  Albany,  then  proceeded  thus  :  "  The  patronage  of  the 
State  of  New  York  is  enormous  ;  the  Governor  alone  has  the 
appointment  of  two  hundred  and  sixty  civil  officers,  and  the 
nomination  of  more  than  two  thousand  places  is  vested  jointly  in 
him  and  the  senate.  Some  of  these  are  for  two,  others  for  five 
years,  and  they  are  worth  from  two  hundred  to  five  thousand 
dollars  a  year.  Among  the  posts  most  coveted,  because  the 
gains  are  sometimes  very  high,  though  fluctuating,  are  those  of 
the  inspectors,  who  set  their  mark  or  brand  on  barrels  of  exported 
goods,  such  as  flour,  tobacco,  preserved  pork,  mackerel  and  other 


262  PLACE-HUNTING.  [CHAP.  XXXIX. 

fish,  to  guarantee  their  good  quality,  arid  guard  the  public  against 
imposition,  in  cases  where  the  articles  would  be  injured  if  opened 
and  examined  by  the  purchaser.  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  state, 
that  where  the  prey  is  so  abundant,  there  will  the  eagles  be  gath 
ered  together  ;  and  besides  the  aspirants  to  vacant  offices,  there 
is  a  crowd  of  lawyers  and  paid  agents  of  private  individuals  and 
companies,  who  have  to  watch  the  passage  of  private  and  public 
bills  through  the  legislature.  During  the  whole  session,  they  fill 
the  Governor's  ante-room,  and  the  lobby  of  each  house  ;  and,  as 
they  are  equal  in  respectability,  number,  station,  and  influence, 
to  the  two  other  houses  put  together,  besides  that  they  spend, 
perhaps,  more  money  in  Albany,  we  dignify  them  with  the  name 
of  <  the  third  house.'  " 

"  Are  they,"  said  I,  "  suspected  of  giving  money-bribes  to 
legislators  ?"  "  No  ;  but  they  may  convey  a  party  of  repre 
sentatives  on  a  railway  trip,  to  make  them  acquainted  with  the 
merits  of  some  case  relating  to  a  canal  or  railroad,  and  then 
entertain  them  with  a  dinner  before  they  return."  "  In  Massa 
chusetts,"  said  I,  "  people  speak  with  more  respect  of  their 
assembly."  '•  No  doubt,  for  in  that  state  there  is  much  less  to 
give  away,  and  therefore  less  corruption  and  intrigue.  Besides, 
we  have  only  160  senators  and  representatives,  whereas  the 
assembly  at  Boston  is  far  more  numerous,  so  that  it  is  not  so 
easy  to  bring  the  influence  of  'the  third  house'  to  bear  upon  it." 

In  the  public  museum  at  Albany,  Dr.  Emmons  showed  me  a 
fine  collection  of  simple  minerals,  rocks,  and  fossils,  made  by 
himself  and  other  geologists  to  whom  the  state  survey  was 
intrusted.  He  then  accompanied  me  across  the  Hudson  River, 
to  examine  the  slate  and  limestone  eastward  of  Albany.  Here, 
from  the  summit  of  Greenbush  Hill,  we  enjoyed  a  magnificent 
view  of  the  Catskill  Mountains,  and  the  Helderberg  range  in  the 
distance.  In  the  foreground  was  the  river,  and  Albany  itself, 
now  containing  a  population  of  40,000  inhabitants,  with  its  domes 
and  spires  clustered  together,  in  the  higher  parts  of  the  city,  and 
lighted  up  by  a  bright  sunshine. 

The  day  following,  Dr.  Emmon.s  and  Mr.  James  Hall  went 
with  me  to  explore  the  chain  of  the  Bald  Mountains,  north  of 


CHAP.  XXXIX.]       SPRLNG  FLOWERS— GEOLOGY.  263 

Galeville.  We  passed  through  the  gay  town  of  Saratoga  Springs, 
where  the  mineral  waters  burst  out  from  "the  Lower  Silurian," 
or  most  ancient  fossiliferous  rocks.  We  saw  many  picturesque 
spots,  especially  the  waterfall  called  Baaten  Kill,  near  Galeville, 
but  no  grand  or  striking  scenery.  Among  the  plants  in  blossom, 
we  gathered  Anemone  nemorosa,  Trientalis  americana  (less 
beautiful  than  our  British  Trientalis  europcea),  Cypripedium 
pubescens,  Geranium  sylvaticum,  three  species  of  violet  (all 
without  scent),  Homtonia  ccerulea,  Gnaplialium  perenne,  and 
in  several  copses,  the  beautiful  Polygala  paucijlora,  which  might 
be  truly  said — 

"  To  purple  all  the  ground  with  vernal  flowers." 

Whether,  in  this  part  of  the  United  States,  there  are  any  fos 
siliferous  rocks  older  than  the  Lower  Silurian,  was  the  geological 
point  at  issue  ;  and  the  question  resembled  one  on  which  an 
animated  controversy  had  lately  been  carried  on  in  Great  Britain, 
in  regard  to  the  relative  ages  of  the  "  Cambrian"  and  "  Silu 
rian"  groups.  As  those  strata,  called  Cambrian,  which  contained 
organic  remains,  were  found  to  be  nothing  more  than  highly 
disturbed  and  semi-crystalline  Silurian  rocks,  so  I  believe  the 
formations  called  Taconic  in  the  United  States,  to  have  claim  to 
no  higher  antiquity,  and  to  be  simply  Silurian  strata  much  altered, 
and  often  quite  metamorphic. 


CHAPTER  XL. 

Construction  and  Management  of  Railways  in  America. — Journey  by  Long 
Island  from  New  York  to  Boston. — Whale  Fishery  in  the  Pacific. — 
Chewing  Tobacco. — Visit  to  Wenham  Lake. — Cause  of  the  superior 
Permanence  of  Wenham  Lake  Ice. — Return  to  Boston. — Skeletons  of 
Fossil  Mastodons. — Food  of  those  extinct  Quadrupeds. — Anti-war  De 
monstration. — Voyage  to  Halifax. — Dense  Fog. — Large  Group  of  Ice 
bergs  seen  on  the  Ocean. — Transportation  of  Rocks  by  Icebergs. — Danger 
of  fast  Sailing  among  Bergs. — Aurora  Borealis. — Connection  of  this 
Phenomenon  with  drift  Ice. — Pilot  with  English  Newspapers. — Return 
to  Liverpool. 

May  21,  1846.  —  IN  the  construction  and  management  of 
railways,  the  Americans  have  in  general  displayed  more  prudence 
and  economy  than  could  have  been  expected,  where  a  people  of 
such  sanguine  temperament  were  entering  on  so  novel  a  career 
of  enterprise.  Annual  dividends  of  seven  or  eight  per  cent,  have 
been  returned  for  a  large  part  of  the  capital  laid  out  on  the  New 
England  railways,  and  on  many  others  in  the  northern  states. 
The  cost  of  passing  the  original  bills  through  the  state  parliaments 
has  usually  been  very  moderate,  and  never  exorbitant ;  the  lines 
have  been  carried  as  much  as  possible  through  districts  where 
land  was  cheap  ;  a  single  line  only  laid  down  where  the  traffic 
did  not  justify  two  ;  high  gradients  resorted  to,  rather  than  incur 
the  expense  of  deep  cuttings ;  tunnels  entirely  avoided ;  very  little 
money  spent  in  building  station-houses  ;  and,  except  where  the 
population  was  large,  they  have  been  content  with  the  speed  of 
fourteen  or  sixteen  miles  an  hour.  It  has,  moreover,  been  an 
invariable  maxim  "  to  go  for  numbers,"  by  lowering  the  fares  so 
as  to  bring  them  within  the  reach  of  all  classes.  Occasionally, 
when  the  intercourse  between  two  rich  and  populous  cities,  like 
New  York  and  Boston,  has  excited  the  eager  competition  of  rival 
companies,  they  have  accelerated  the  speed  far  beyond  the  usual 
average  ;  and  we  were  carried  from  one  metropolis  to  the  other, 


CHAP.  XL.J  WHALE  FISHERY.  -2G5 

a  distance  of  239  miles,  at  the  rate  of  thirty  miles  an  hour,  in  a 
commodious,  lofty,  and  well- ventilated  car,  the  charge  being  only 
three  dollars,  or  thirteen  shillings.  We  went  by  a  route  newly 
opened,  first  through  Long  Island,  ninety-five  miles  in  length, 
over  a  low,  level  tract,  chiefly  composed  of  fine  sand  ;  and  wo 
then  found  a  steamer  ready  to  take  us  across  the  Sound  to  New 
London  in  Connecticut,  where  we  were  met  by  the  cars  at  Point 
Allen ;  after  which  we  enjoyed  much  delightful  scenery,  the  rail 
way  following  the  margin  of  a  river,  where  there  were  cascades 
and  rapids  foaming  over  granite  rocks,  and  overhung  with  trees, 
whose  foliage,  just  unfolded,  was  illumined  by  a  brilliant  sun 
shine. 

In  the  estuary  of  New  London  we  saw  many  large  whalers, 
arid  a  merchant  talked  to  me  with  satisfaction  of  the  success  of 
the  United  States  whale-fishery  in  the  Pacific,  saying  it  amounted 
to  200,000  tons,  while  that  of  Great  Britain  did  not  exceed 
60,000.  "Five  fish,"  said  he,  "is  the  usual  cargo  of  an  English 
whaler,  as  they  boil  the  blubber  at  home,  whereas  the  Americans 
boil  it  in  a  huge  cauldron  on  deck,  and  after  staying  out  three  years, 
return  with  the  oil  of  ninety  whales  in  one  ship.  Our  fishery 
in  the  Pacific  is  becoming  a  most  important  nursery  for  seamen, 
giving  occupation  to  about  20,000  men,  which  would  enable  us 
at  any  moment  to  man  a  powerful  fleet.  The  possession  of 
California  is  therefore  much  coveted  by  us,  because  the  port  of 
San  Francisco  is  the  only  one  in  the  northern  Pacific  not  exposed 
to  the  west  wind,  or  blocked  up  by  a  bar  of  sand,  such  as  that 
which  renders  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia  River  impassable  to 
large  ships.  It  is  not  territory  but  a  sea-port  we  need,  and  this 
advantage  a  war  with  Mexico  may  give  us." 

There  was  besides  much  characteristic  conversation  in  the  cars, 
about  constructing  a  railway  4000  miles  long  from  Washington 
to  the  Columbia  River  ;  and  some  of  the  passengers  were  specu 
lating  on  the  hope  of  seeing  in  their  lifetime  a  population  of  15,000 
souls  settled  in  Oregon  and  California.  A  variety  of  plans  was 
also  freely  discussed  for  crossing  the  isthmus  from  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico  into  the  Pacific,  so  as  to  avoid  the  long  and  dangerous 
voyage  round  Cape  Horn.  A  ship-canal  across  the  isthmus  of 

VOL.    II. M 


2G6  CHEWING  TOBACCO.  [CHAP.  XL. 


Tehuantepec,  135  miles  in  length,  was  alluded  to  as  the  favorite 
scheme  ;  and  the  expediency  of  forcing  Mexico  to  cede  a  right  of 
way  was  spoken  of  as  if  the  success  of  their  campaign  was  certain. 

It  is  the  fashion  for  travelers  in  the  New  World  to  dwell  so 
much  on  the  chewing  of  tobacco,  that  I  may  naturally  be  ex 
pected  to  say  something  of  this  practice.  There  is  enough  of  it 
1<>  bo  very  annoying  in  steamboats  and  railway-cars,  but  far  less 
so  as  we  journey  northward ;  and  T  never  saw,  even  in  the  south, 
:uiy  chewing  of  the  weed  in  drawing-rooms,  although  we  were 
told  in  South  Carolina  that  some  old  gentlemen  still  indulged  in 
I  his  habit.  That  it  is  comparatively  rare  in  the  New  England 
stales,  was  attested  by  an  anecdote  related  to  me  of  a  captain 
\\lio  commands  one  of  the  steamers  on  Lake  Champlain,  who 
prided  himself  on  the  whiteness  of  his  deck,  intended  to  be  kept 
as  a  promenade.  Observing  a  southerner  occasionally  polluting 
its  clean  iloor,  he  ordered  a  boy  to  follow  him  up  and  down  with 
a  s\v;ib,  to  the  infinite  diversion  of  the  passengers,  and  the  no 
small  indignation  of  the  southerner,  when  at  length  he  discovered 
how  his  footsteps  had  been  dodged.  The  governor  of  a  peniten 
tiary  told  me,  that  to  deprive  prisoners  of  tobacco  was  found  to 
be  a  very  efficient  punishment,  and  that  its  use  was  prohibited 
in  the  New  England  madhouses,  as  being  too  exciting. 

From  Boston  we  went  to  Ipswich,  in  Massachusetts,  to  visit 
Mr.  Oakes,  the  botanist,  with  whom  we  had  spent  many  pleasant 
days  in  the  White  Mountains.*  lie  set  out  with  us  on  an  ex 
cursion  to  Wenham  Lake,  from  which  so  much  ice  is  annually 
exported  1o  England  and  other  parts  of  the  world. 

This  lake  lies  about  twenty  miles  to  the  northeast  of  Boston. 
It  has  a  small  island  in  the  middle  of  it,  is  about  a  mile  long  and 
lorl y  feet  deep,  arid  is  surrounded  by  hills  of  sand  and  gravel,  from 
forty  to  a  hundred  feel  high.  The  water  is  always  clear  and  pure, 
and  the  bottom  covered  with  white  quartzose  sand.  It  is  fed  by 
springs,  and  receives  no  mud  from  any  stream  flowing  into  it ; 
but  at  the  lower  extremity  a  small  brook  of  transparent  water 
Hows  out.  In  some  parts,  however,  there  must,  I  presume,  be  a 
soft  and  muddy  bottom,  as  it  is  inhabited  by  eels,  as  well  as  by 
*  See  vol.  i.  p.  64. 


CHAP.  XL.]  WENHAM  LAKE  ICE.  267 

pickerel  and  perch.  Mr.  Oakes  had  recently  received  a  present 
of  a  snapping  turtle,  weighing  25  Ibs.,  taken  from  the  lake.  The 
ice  is  conveyed  by  railway  to  Boston  to  be  shipped,  and  the  in 
crease  of  business  has  of  late  been  such  as  to  cause  the  erection 
of  new  buildings,  measuring  127  feet  by  120,  and  24  feet  high. 
They  stand  on  the  water's  edge,  by  the  side  of  the  old  store 
houses,  which  are  very  extensive,  built  of  wood,  with  double 
walls  two  feet  apart,  the  space  between  being  filled  with  saw 
dust,  which  excludes  the  external  air  ;  while  tan  is  heaped  up, 
for  the  same  purpose,  on  the  outside.  The  work  of  cutting  and 
storing  the  ice  is  carried  on  in  winter,  and  is  not  commenced  till 
the  ice  is  at  least  a  foot  thick.  The  surface  is  always  carefully 
swept  and  kept  free  from  snow  ;  and  as  none  but  the  most  com 
pact  and  solid  ice  is  fit  for  the  market,  it  is  necessary  to  shave 
off  three  inches  or  more  of  the  superficial  ice,  by  means  of  a 
machine  called  an  ice-plane,  drawn  by  a  horse.  This  operation 
is  especially  required  after  a  thaw  or  a  fall  of  rain,  succeeded  by  a 
frost,  which  causes  the  lake  to  be  covered  with  opaque,  porous  ice. 
Sir  Francis  Head,  in  his  "Emigrant,"  1846,  has  attributed 
the  durability  of  the  Wenham  Lake  ice,  or  its  power  of  resisting 
liquefaction,  to  the  intense  cold  of  a  North  American  winter.  It 
is  perfectly  true  that  this  ice  does  not  melt  so  fast  as  English  ice  ; 
but  the  cause  of  this  phenomenon  is,  I  believe,  very  different  from 
that  assigned  for  it  by  the  late  governor  of  Upper  Canada. 
"  People  in  England/'  he  says,  "  are  prone  to  think  that  ice  is 
ice;  but  the  truth  is,  that  the  temperature  of  32°  Fahrenheit, 
that  at  which  water  freezes,  is  only  the  commencement  of  an 
operation  that  is  almost  infinite  ;  for  after  its  congelation,  water 
is  as  competent  to  continue  to  receive  cold,  as  it  was  when  it  was 
fluid.  The  application  of  cold  to  a  block  of  ice  does  not,  as  in 
the  case  of  heat  applied  beneath  boiling  water,  cause  what  is  added 
at  one  end  to  fly  out  at  the  other  :  but,  on  the  contrary,  the  cen* 
ter  cold  is  added  to  and  retained  by  the  mass,  and  thus  the  tem 
perature  of  the  ice  falls  with  the  temperature  of  the  air,  until  in 
Lower  Canada  it  occasionally  sinks  to  40°  below  zero,  or  72° 
below  the  temperature  of  ice  just  congealed.  It  is  evident,  there 
fore,  that  if  two  ice-houses  were  to  be  filled,  the  one  with  Canada 


268  WENHAM  LAKE  IOE.  [CHAP.  XL. 

ice,  and  the  other  with  English  ice,  the  difference  between  the 
quantity  of  cold  stored  up  in  each  would  be  as  appreciable  as  the 
difference  between  a  cellar  full  of  gold  and  a  cellar  full  of  copper  ; 
that  is  to  say,  a  cubic  foot  of  Lower  Canada  ice  is  infinitely  more 
valuable,  or,  in  other  words,  it  contains  infinitely  more  cold,  than. 
a  cubic  foot  of  Upper  Canada  ice,  which  again  contains  more 
cold  than  a  cubic  foot  of  Wenham  ice,  which  contains  infinitely 
more  cold  than  a  cubic  foot  of  English  ice  ;  and  thus,  although 
each  of  these  four  cubic  feet  of  ice  has  precisely  the  same  shape, 
they  each,  as  summer  approaches,  diminish  in  value  ;  that  is  to 
say,  they  each  gradually  lose  a  portion  of  their  cold,  until,  long 
before  the  Lower  Canada  ice  has  melted,  the  English  ice  has 
been  converted  into  lukewarm  water." 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  where  an  intense  frost  gives  rise 
to  a  great  thickness  of  ice,  permitting  large  cubic  masses  to  be 
obtained  after  the  superficial  and  porous  ice  has  been  planed  off, 
a  great  advantage  is  afforded  to  the  American  ice  merchant,  and 
the  low  temperature  acquired  by  the  mass  must  prevent  it  from 
melting  so  readily  when  the  hot  season  comes  on,  since  it  has  first 
to  be  warmed  up  to  32°  Fahrenheit,  before  it  can  begin  to  melt. 
Nevertheless,  each  fragment  of  ice,  when  removed  from  the  store 
house,  very  soon  acquires  the  temperature  of  32°  Fahrenheit, 
and  yet  when  a  lump  of  Wenham  ice  has  been  brought  to  En 
gland,  it  does  not  melt  by  any  means  so  readily  as  a  similar  lump 
of  common  English  ice.  Mr.  Faraday  tells  me  that  Wenham 
Lake  ice  is  exceedingly  pure,  being  both  free  from  air-bubbles  and 
from  salts.  The  presence  of  the  first  makes  it  extremely  difficult 
to  succeed  in  making  a  lens  of  English  ice  which  will  concentrate 
the  solar  rays  and  readily  fire  gunpowder,  whereas  nothing  is 
easier  than  to  perform  this  singular  feat  of  igniting  a  combustible 
body  by  the  aid  of  a  frozen  mass,  if  Wenham  ice  be  employed. 

The  absence  of  salts  conduces  greatly  to  the  permanence  of 
the  ice,  for  where  water  is  so  frozen  that  the  salts  expelled  are 
still  contained  in  air-cavities  and  cracks,  or  form  thin  films  be 
tween  the  layers  of  the  ice,  these  entangled  salts  cause  the  ice  to 
melt  at  a  lower  temperature  than  32°,  and  the  liquefied  portions 
give  rise  to  streams  and  currents  within  the  body  of  the  ice,  which 


CHAP.  XL.]  RETURN  TO  BOSTON.  269 

rapidly  carry  heat  to  the  interior.  The  mass  then  goes  on  thaw 
ing  within  as  well  as  without,  and  at  temperatures  below  32°  ; 
whereas  pure  and  compact  Wenham  ice  can  only  thaw  at  32°, 
and  only  on  the  outside  of  the  mass. 

Boston,  May,  23. — Sir  Humphrey  Davy,  in  his  "  Consola 
tions  in  Travel,"*1  has  said,  that  he  never  entered  London,  after 
having  been  absent  for  some  time,  without  feelings  of  pleasure 
and  hope  ;  for  there  he  could  enjoy  the  most  refined  society  in 
the  grand  theater  of  intellectual  activity,  the  metropolis  of  the 
world  of  business,  thought,  and  action,  in  politics,  literature,  and 
science. 

I  have  more  than  once  experienced  the  same  feelings  of  hope 
and  pleasure  after  having  wandered  over  the  less  populous  and 
civilized  parts  of  the  United  States,  when  I  returned  to  Boston, 
and  never  more  so  than  on  this  occasion,  when,  after  traveling 
over  so  large  a  space  in  the  southern  and  western  states,  we 
spent  ten  days  in  the  society  of  our  literary  and  scientific  friends 
in  the  metropolis  of  Massachusetts,  and  in  the  flourishing  univer 
sity  in  its  suburbs.  They  who  wish  to  give  a  true  picture  of  the 
national  character  of  America,  what  it  now  is,  and  is  destined  to 
become,  must  study  chiefly  those  towns  which  contain  the  great 
est  number  of  native-born  Citizens.  They  must  sojourn  in  the 
east,  rather  than  in  the  west  or  south,  not  among  the  six  millions 
who  are  one  half  African  and  the  other  half  the  owners  of  negroes, 
nor  among  the  settlers  in  the  back-woods,  who  are  half  Irish, 
German,  or  Norwegians,  nor  among  the  people  of  French  origin 
in  Louisiana  ;  for,  however  faithfully  they  may  portray  the  pecu 
liarities  of  such  districts,  they  will  give  no  better  a  representation 
of  America,  than  an  accurate  description  of  Tipperary,  Conne- 
mara,  the  West  Indies,  French  Canada,  Australia,  and  the  vari 
ous  lands  into  which  Great  Britain  is  pouring  her  surplus  popu 
lation,  would  convey  of  England. 

Among  other  scientific  novelties  at  Boston,  I  was  taken  to  see 
two  magnificent  skeletons,  recently  obtained,  of  the  huge  masto 
don,  one  of  them  found  in  Warren  County,  New  Jersey,  which  a 
farmer  had  met  with  six  feet  below  the  surface,  when  digging 

*  P.  168. 


270  FOSSIL  MASTODON.  [CHAP.  XL. 

out  the  rich  mud  from  a  small  pond  newly  drained.  There  were 
no  less  than  six  skeletons,  five  of  them  lying  together,  and  the 
sixth  and  largest  about  ten  feet  apart  from  the  rest.  A  large 
portion  of  the  bones  crumbled  to  pieces  as  soon  as  they  were 
exposed  to  the  air,  but  nearly  the  whole  of  the  separate  specimen 
was  preserved.  Dr.  John  Jackson  called  my  attention  to  the  in 
teresting  fact  that  this  perfect  skeleton  proved  the  correctness  of 
Cuvier's  conjecture  respecting  this  extinct  animal,  namely,  that 
it  had  twenty  ribs,  like  the  elephant,  although  no  more  than  nine 
teen  had  ever  been  previously  found.  From  the  clay  in  the  in 
terior  within  the  ribs,  just  where  the  contents  of  the  stomach 
might  naturally  have  been  looked  for,  seven  bushels  of  vegetable 
matter  had  been  extracted  ;  and  Professor  Webster,  of  Harvard 
College,  had  the  kindness  to  present  me  with  some  of  it,  which 
has  since  been  microscopically  examined  for  me  in  London  by 
Mr.  A.  Henfrey,  of  the  Geological  Survey.  He  informs  me  that 
it  consists  of  pieces  of  the  small  twigs  of  a  coniferous  tree  of  the 
cypress  family  ;  and  they  resemble  in  structure  the  young  shoots 
of  the  white  cedar  (  Thuja  occidentalis),  still  a  native  of  North 
America,  on  which,  therefore,  we  may  conclude  that  the  masto 
don  fed. 

But  a  still  nobler  specimen  of  this  great  proboscidian  quadru 
ped  was  exhumed  in  August,  1845,  in  the  town  of  Newburg, 
New  York,  and  purchased  by  Dr.  John  C.  Warren,  Professor  of 
Anatomy  in  Harvard  University.  It  is  the  most  complete,  and, 
perhaps,  the  largest  ever  met  with.  The  bones  contain  a  consid 
erable  proportion  of  their  original  gelatine,  and  are  firm  in  text 
ure.  The  tusks,  when  discovered,  were  ten  feet  long  ;  but  the 
larger  part  of  them  had  decomposed,  and  could  not  be  preserved. 
The  length  of  the  skeleton  was  twenty-five  feet,  and  its  height 
twelve  feet,  the  anchylosing  of  the  two  last  ribs  on  the  right  side 
affording  the  comparative  anatomist  a  true  guage  for  the  space 
occupied  by  the  intervertebrate  substance,  so  as  to  enable  him  to 
form  a  correct  estimate  of  the  entire  length.  Dr.  Warren  gave 
me  an  excellent  Daguerreotype  of  this  skeleton  for  Mr.  Clift,  of 
the  College  of  Surgeons  in  London. 

Nothing  is  more  remarkable  than  the  large  proportion  of  ani- 


CHAP.  XL.]  ANTI-WAR  DEMONSTRATION.  271 

mal  matter  in  the  tusks,  teeth,  and  bones  of  many  of  these  extinct 
mammalia,  amounting  in  some  cases,  as  Dr.  C.  T.  Jackson  has 
ascertained  by  analysis,  to  27  per  cent.,  so  that  when  all  the 
earthy  ingredients  are  removed  by  acids,  the  form  of  the  bone 
remains  as  perfect,  and  the  mass  of  animal  matter  is  almost  as 
firm,  as  in  a  recent  bone  subjected  to  similar  treatment.  It 
would  be  rash,  however,  to  infer  confidently  from  such  data  that 
these  quadrupeds  were  mired  at  periods  more  modern  than  the 
fossil  elephants  found  imbedded  in  similar  clayey  deposits  in 
Europe,  for  the  climate  prevailing  in  this  part  of  America  may 
possibly  have  been  colder  than  it  was  on  the  eastern  side  of  the 
Atlantic.  At  the  same  time,  I  have  stated  in  my  former  "Trav 
els,"*  that  all  the  mastodons  whose  geological  position  I  was 
able  to  examine  into,  in  Canada  and  the  United  States,  lived 
subsequently  to  the  period  of  erratic  blocks,  and  the  formations 
commonly  called  glacial.  I  have  also  shown  that  the  contempo 
rary  fresh- water  and  land  shells  were  of  such  species  as  now  live 
in  the  same  region,  so  that  the  climate  could  scarcely  have  differed 
very  materially  from  that  now  prevailing  in  the  same  latitudes. 

During  my  stay  at  Boston,  as  I  was  returning  one  evening 
through  Washington-street,  I  fell  in  with  a  noisy  rabble  of  young 
men  and  boys,  some  of  whom  were  dressed  up  for  the  occasion  in 
rags,  and  provided  with  drums,  sticks,  whistles,  tin-kettles,  and 
pans,  with  other  musical  instruments,  most  of  them  on  foot,  but 
some  mounted  arid  sitting  with  their  faces  toward  the  horse's  Gl 
ass's  tail,  others  with  banners,  calling  out,  "  Hurrah  for  Texas," 
for  they  styled  themselves  "the  Texas  volunteers."  This  I  found 
was  an  anti-war  demonstration,  and  shows  that  there  is  a  portion 
even  of  the  humblest  class  here,  who  are  inclined  to  turn  the 
agressive  spirit  and  thirst  for  conquest  of  the  Washington  Cabinet 
into  ridicule. 

June  1.  —  Sailed  for  England  in  the  Britannia,  one  of  the 
Cunard  line  of  steamers,  the  same  in  which  we  had  made  our 
outward  voyage.  For  several  days  a  white  fog  had  been  setting 
in  from  the  sea  at  Boston,  and  we  were  therefore  not  surprised 
to  find  the  mist  so  dense  off  the  harbor  of  Halifax  that  the  light- 
*  Vol.  i.  pp.  51,  55.  Vol.  ii.  p.  65. 


VOYAGE  TO  HALIFAX.  [CHAP.  XL. 

house  was  invisible.  By  a  continual  discharge  of  guns,  which 
were  answered  by  the  firing  of  cannon  at  the  light-house,  our 
captain  was  able  safely  to  steer  his  ship  into  the  harbor.  In  the 
post  office  we  found  letters  from  England,  left  by  a  steamer 
which  had  touched  there  two  days  before,  and  had  come  from 
Liverpool  in  nine  days. 

June  7. — When  wo  had  quitted  Halifax  five  days,  and  were 
on  the  wide  ocean,  the  monotony  of  the  scene  was  suddenly 
broken  by  the  approach  of  a  group  of  icebergs,  several  hundred 
in  number,  varying  in  height  from  100  to  250  feet,  all  of  the 
purest  white,  except  such  portions  as,  being  in  shade,  assumed  a 
greenish  hue,  or  such  as  acquired  a  delicate  rose-color  tint  from 
the  rays  of  the  evening  sun.  These  splendid  bergs  were  supposed 
to  have  floated  from  Placentia  Bay,  in  Newfoundland,  where  a 
great  many  merchantmen  had  been  imprisoned  for  several  months 
by  a  huge  barrier  of  ice.  They  were  almost  all  of  picturesque 
shapes,  and  some  of  them  of  most  fantastic  form  ;  three  in  par 
ticular,  which  came  within  a  mile  of  us.  One  presented  a  huge 
dome,  rising  from  the  center  of  a  flat  tabular  mass  ;  another, 
more  than  100  feet  high,  was  precisely  in  the  form  of  a  pyramid, 
quite  sharp  at  the  top,  and  the  angle  formed  by  the  meeting  of 
two  sides,  very  well  defined  ;  at  the  base  of  it  rose  a  hummock, 
which  we  called  the  Egyptian  Sphinx.  The  third  was  covered 
Avith  pinnacles,  and  seemed  like  a  portion  of  the  Glacier  des 
Bossons,  in  the  valley  of  Chamouni,  detached  and  afloat  Kreet 
on  one  side  of  it  stood  an  isolated  obelisk  of  ice,  100  feet  high, 
which  increased  A^ery  slightly  in  size  toward  the  base.  Some  of 
these  bodies  appeared  to  the  north,  others  far  to  the  south  of  us, 
the  loftiest  of  the  whole  rising  out  of  the  water  to  the  height  of 
•!00  feet,  according  to  the  conjecture  of  the  seamen,  Avho  thought 
they  could  not  be  far  out  in  their  estimate,  as  there  Avas  a  schooner 
alongside  of  it,  and  they  could  tell  the  height  of  her  mast  Avithin 
a  few  feet.  We  sailed  within  half  a  mile  of  several  bergs,  Avhich 
were  :2T)0  feet,  and  within  a  quarter  of  a  mile  of  one  150  feet  in 
height,  on  which,  by  aid  of  the  telescope,  AVC  distinctly  observed 
a  great  number  of  sea-birds,  which  looked  like  minute  black  specks 
on  a  white  ground.  I  Avas  most  anxious  to  ascertain  whether 


CHAP.  XL.]  ICEBERGS.  273 

there  was  any  mud,  stones,  or  fragments  of  rock  on  any  one  of 
these  floating  masses,  but  after  examining  about  forty  of  them 
without  perceiving  any  signs  of  foreign  matter,  I  left  the  deck 
when  it  was  growing  dusk.  My  questions  had  excited  the 
curiosity  of  the  captain  and  officers  of  the  ship,  who  assured  me 
they  had  never  seen  any  stones  on  a  berg,  observing,  at  the  same 
time,  that  they  had  always  been  so  eager  to  get  out  of  their 
way,  and  in  such  a  state  of  anxiety  when  near  them,  that  such 
objects  might  easily  have  been  overlooked.  I  had  scarcely  gone 
below  ten  minutes,  when  one  of  the  passengers  came  to  tell  me 
that  the  captain  had  seen  a  black  mass  as  large  as  a  boat  on  an 
iceberg,  about  150  feet  high,  which  was  very  near.  By  aid  of  a 
glass,  it  was  made  out  distinctly  to  be  a  space  about  nine  feet 
square  covered  with  black  stones.  The  base  of  the  berg  on  the 
side  toward  the  steamer  was  GOO  feet  long,  and  from  the  dark 
spot  to  the  water's  edge,  there  was  a  stripe  of  soiled  ice,  as  if  the 
water  streaming  down  a  slope,  as  the  ice  melted,  had  carried 
mud  suspended  in  it.  In  the  soiled  channel  were  seen  two 
blocks,  each  about  the  size  of  a  man's  head.  Although  I  re 
turned  instantly  to  the  deck  when  the  berg  was  still  in  sight, 
such  was  then  the  haziness  of  the  air,  and  the  rapidity  of  our 
motion,  that  the  dark  spot  was  no  longer  discernible.  Such  in 
stances  of  the  transportation  of  rocks  by  ice,  occurrences  most 
interesting  to  geologists,  were  first  recorded  by  Scoresby,  in  the 
northern  hemisphere  ;  but  from  the  accounts  given  me  by  Sir 
James  Ross  and  Dr.  Joseph  Hooker,  they  are  evidently  much 
more  common  in  the  icebergs  drifted  from  the  antarctic  than 
from  those  of  the  arctic  regions. 

When  we  were  among  the  ice,  the  temperature  of  the  water 
was  45°  Fahrenheit.  On  the  day  before  we  came  up  with  it, 
the  passengers  had  already  begun  to  look  out  warmer  clothing, 
and  shawls  and  great  coats  were  in  requisition.  Occasionally  we 
were  steering  among  small  pieces  of  ice,  and  the  wheel  at  the 
helm  was  turned  iirst  one  way  and  then  another,  reminding  me 
of  the  dangers  of  the  Mississippi,  when  we  were  avoiding  the 
bumping  against  logs.  In  the  fore  part  of  the  vessel  the  watch 
was  trebled,  some  aloft  and  others  below,  and  we  went  on  at  the 

M* 


274  AURORA  BOREALIS.  [CHAP.  XL. 

rate  of  nine  miles  an  hour,  and  once  in  the  night  came  within 
less  than  a  ship's  length  of  a  large  berg.  A  naval  officer  on 
board  declared  to  me  next  morning  that  the  peril  had  been  im 
minent  ;  that  he  had  weathered  a  typhoon  in  the  Chinese  seas, 
and  would  rather  brave  another  than  sail  so  fast  in  the  night 
through  a  pack  of  icebergs.  He  now  thought  it  most  probable 
that  the  President  steam-ship  had  been  lost  by  striking  a  berg. 
He  reminded  me  that  we  had  seen  a  pinnacle  of  ice,  distant  100 
yards  or  more  from  the  main  body  of  a  berg,  of  which  it  was 
evidently  a  part,  the  intervening  submerged  ice  being  concealed 
under  water.  How  easily,  therefore,  might  we  have  struck 
against  similar  hidden  masses,  where  no  such  projecting  pinnacle 
remained  to  warn  us  of  our  danger. 

At  half-past  nine  o'clock  on  the  evening  of  the  8th  June,  it 
being  bright  moonlight,  some  hours  after  we  had  lost  sight  of  the 
ice,  when  we  were  in  a  latitude  corresponding  to  the  south  of 
France,  we  saw  in  the  north  a  most  brilliant  exhibition  of  the 
Aurora  Borealis  ;  the  sky  seemed  to  open  and  close,  emitting, 
for  a  short  period,  silvery  streams  of  light  like  comets'  tails,  and 
then  a  large  space  became  overspread  with  a  most  delicate 
roseate  hue.  The  occurrence  of  this  phenomenon  in  the  summer 
season,  and  in  so  southern  a  latitude,  seemed  to  point  to  its  con 
nection  with  the  ice  which  was  drifting  over  the  sea  between  us 
and  Newfoundland,  now  to  the  N.  W.  of  us.  We  learn  from 
Sir  James  Ross's  narrative  of  the  late  antarctic  expedition,  the 
highly  interesting  fact,  that  when  the  Aurora  Borealis  was  playing 
over  the  great  barrier  of  coast  ice  on  the  shores  of  the  antarctic 
land,  it  partook  distinctly  of  the  irregular  and  broken  shape  of 
the  icy  cliffs  over  which  it  hovered.* 

June  12. — A  pilot  came  on  board  from  Ireland,  with  English 
newspapers,  filled  with  debates  on  the  repeal  of  the  corn-laws. 
Among  the  foreign  news,  a  considerable  space  was  occupied  with 
the  affairs  of  France,  Germany,  Italy,  India,  China,  and  there 
was  only  a  short  paragraph  or  two  about  America,  North  and 
South.  I  had  been  traveling  long  enough  in  the  New  World  to 
sympathize  fully  with  the  feelings  of  some  of  my  American  fellow- 
*  Vol.  ii.  p.  221.  1842. 


CHAP.  XL.]  RETURN  TO  LIVERPOOL.  275 

passengers,  who  were  coming  abroad  for  the  first  time,  when  they 
expressed  their  surprise  at  the  small  space  which  the  affairs  of 
the  United  States  occupied  even  in  English  journals.  It  is  a 
lesson  which  every  traveler  has  to  learn  when  he  is  far  from  home, 
and  seeks  in  a  foreign  newspaper  to  gain  some  intelligence  of  his 
native  land.  He  is  soon  accustomed  to  find  that  day  after  day 
even  the  name  of  his  country  is  not  mentioned. 

The  speed  of  our  steamer  had  been  constantly  increasing  as  the 
weight  of  coal  diminished.  The  length  of  the  voyage,  therefore, 
to  America  might  be  considerably  abridged  if  the  quantity  of  coal 
were  lessened  by  a  day  and  a  half's  consumption,  the  steamer 
starting  from  the  west  of  Ireland,  to  which  passengers  might  be 
conveyed  in  a  few  hours,  by  steamboat  and  railway,  from  Liv 
erpool. 

June  13,  Saturday. — Anchored  off  Liverpool  at  half-past  ten 
o'clock  in  the  evening,  having  made  the  passage  from  Boston  in 
twelve  days  and  a  half,  it  being  nine  months  and  nine  days  since 
we  left  that  port. 


INDEX. 


INDEX. 


ABOLITIONIST  "  wrecker,"  ii  39. 
Abolitionists,  i.  239,  240  ;  ii.  127. 

,  colored,  i.  103,  104. 

Absenteeism  in  Southern  States,  ii.  70. 
Acquia  Creek,  ii.  247. 
Actors  in  steamer,  ii.  165. 
Advocates  and  attorneys,  i.  46. 
African  Tom,  i.  266. 
Age  of  delta  of  Mississippi,  ii.  189. 
Agelaius  phaeniceus,  i.  245. 
Alabama  geology,  ii.  75. 

,  traveling  bad,  ii.  70. 

,  coal-field,  ii.  69. 

Altamaha  River,  i.  243.,  256. 

Albany,  excursion  to,  ii.  259. 

Alcaeus,  ii.  103. 

Alleghany  Mountains,  ii.  240. 

Alligators,  i.  237,  250  ;  ii.  156. 

Alligator's  nest,  i.  251. 

Alluvium  of  Missippi,  ii.  183. 

Alpine  plants,  i.  69. 

American  oratory,  i.  142. 

Antarctic  ice,  i.  37. 

Anthracite  coal,  i.  188. 

Anti-British  antipathies,  ii.  217. 

Anti-Corn-Law-League,  ii.  170. 

Anti-English  feeling,  i.  225. 

Anti-negro  feeling,  ii.  125. 

Anti-renters,  N.  Y.,  ii.  260. 

Arbitration,  i.  198. 

Arctic  Flora  on  Mount  Washington,  i, 

69. 

Arisaig,  i.  108. 
Artesian  wells,  ii.  76. 

,  near  Montgomery,  ii.  41. 

Arundo  phragmitis,  ii.  118. 
Ateuchus  volvens,  ii.  245. 
Attakapas,  ii.  136. 
Audubon,  Mr.,  visit  to,  ii.  249. 
Augusta,  in  Maine,  i.  44. 
Aurora  Borealis,  ii.  274. 


B. 


B  achraan,  Dr.,  i.  227. 

Backwoods,  inconveniences  of,  ii.  62. 


Bald  region  of  Mount  Washington,  i. 
Balize,  ii.  113,  116, 

,  houses  on  piles,  ii.  117. 

look-out,  ii.  117. 

Bankruptcies,  i.  127. 
Baptist  and  Atheist,  i.  140. 

and  Methodists,  i.  269. 

Barn  moved,  i.  100. 
Bartram,  i.  250,  261 ;  ii.  137. 
Basking  shark,  i.  118. 
Baton  Rouge,  ii.  99,  137. 
Battle-ground,  New  Orleans,  ii.  122. 
Bayou  Liere,  ii.  114. 

la  Fourche,  ii.  136. 

Plaquemine,  ii.  136. 

Sara,  ii.  147. 

St.  John,  ii.  177. 

Bear  in  New  England,  i.  60. 
Beaufort,  i.  230. 
Beetle,  ball-rolling,  ii.  245. 
Beetles  called  bugs,  ii.  158. 
Bequests,  i.  155. 
Berkeley,  Sir  William,  i.  161. 
Bibles  distributed,  i.  271. 
Big  Black  River,  ii.  160. 

Bone  Lick,  ii.  194. 

Birds,  i.  236. 

on  Mount  Washington,  i.  67. 

of  Indiana,  ii.  202. 

Bishop  of  St.  Asaph,  i.  28. 
Black  Baptist  church,  ii.  14. 

mechanics,  i.  267. 

Methodist  church,  ii.  213. 

Blanco  White,  i.  184. 

Blind  asylum,  i.  133. 

Blocks  of  granite  and  gneiss,  ii.  27. 

Bluff  of  St.  Stephen's,  ii.  77. 

Bluffs,  fossils  of,  ii.  4d. 

,  shipping  cotton  at,  ii.  47. 

Bonaventure,  i.  238. 

Bony  pike  used  for  manure,  ii.  246. 

Boot  factory,  i.  91. 

Boston,  i.  24,  122. 

,  public  buildings,  i.  27. 

,  militia,  i.  28. 

,  environs  of,  i.  30. 

,  suburbs  of,  i.  93. 

,  lodgings  in,  i.  122. 

.  mode  of  living,  i.  124. 


278 


INDEX. 


Boulders,  i.  87. 

Bowie  knives,  ii.  206. 

Brazilian  caves,  i.  259. 

Bridgeport,  repudiation,  ii.  242. 

Bringier,  Mr.,  ii.  109,  175. 

British  aggrandizement,  i.  194. 

Brown,  Mr.  A.,  ii.  191. 

Brumby,  Mr.,  professor  of  chemistry,  ii. 

69. 

Brunswick  Canal,  i.  258. 
Buffalo  Island,  ii.  179. 
Bunker  Hill  monument,  i.  24. 
Buried  trees,  ii.  109,  137,  140,  147. 
Butler's  Island,  i.  248. 


Cabbage-palm,  i.  235 
Cairo  on  the  Ohio,  ii. 


201. 


Campbell,  life  of,  i.  116. 

,  Gertrude  of  Wyoming,  ii.  240. 

Canadian  legislature,  i.  198. 

Canadians,  ii.  124. 

Canal  cut  through  the  ice,  i.  25. 

Canes  on  bank  of  river,  ii.  68. 

Cannon's  Point,  i.  252. 

Cape  Cod,  i.  94. 

Capitol,  i.  200. 

Captains  of  steamers,  ii.  170. 

Caravel  of  Columbus,  i.  13. 

Carlyle,  Mr.,  ii.  236. 

Carnival,  ii.  91. 

at  New  Orleans,  ii.  91. 

Carolina,  North,  i.  218. 

Carpenter,  Dr.,  ii.  106,  111,  138,  188. 

Carriages,  i.  125. 

Carthage  Crevasse,  ii.  132. 

Carver  Governor,  i.  99. 

Carya  aquatica,  ii.  114. 

Cass,  General,  i.  197. 

Cathedral,  Catholic,  New  Orleans,  ii.  93. 

Cattle,  Miring  of,  ii.  86. 

Cercis  canadensis,  ii.  153. 

Chamaerops  adansonia,  ii.  107. 

—  palmetto,  i.  235. 
Chambersburg,  ii.  241. 
Channing,  Dr.,  i.  135,  152. 

on  Milton,  i.  157. 

on  Slavery,  i.  241. 

Channing's  Works,  i.  138. 
Charleston,  i.  221. 

,  gardens,  i.  229. 

,  society  in,  i.  223. 

Charlevoix,  ii.  119. 
Charlottesville,  ii.  135. 
Chatahoochie,  Fall  of,  ii.  35. 
Cheapness  of  books  in  the  U.  S-,  ii.  252. 


Cheirotherium  of  Saxony,  ii.  232. 

in  coal  of  Pennsylvania,  ii.  230. 

Cherokee  rose,  ii.  153. 

Chicken-thieves,  ii.  131. 

Children,  spoilt,  ii.  168. 

Christians,  sect  so  called,  i.  136. 

Christinas  Day,  i.  220. 

Christians,  i.  136. 

Churches  in  Maine,!.  54. 

in  New  York,  i.  181. 

,  none  in  New  Harmony,  ii.  204. 

Cincinnati,  progress  of,  ii.  218. 

Civilization  among  negroes,  i.  268. 

Claiborne,  fossil  remains  at,  ii.  53. 

,  landing  at,  ii.  53. 

Clapp,  Dr.,  ii.  208. 

Clay,  Mr.,  ii.  103. 

Clergy,  pay  of,  i.  174. 

Climate  of  Boston  i.  ]  23. 

,  change  of,  affecting  plants,  i.  72. 

of  New  England,  i.  123. 

Clipper  Steamer,  ii.  223. 

Coal-fields,  i.  215. 

of  Alabama,  ii.  69. 

seams,  i.  213. 

strata,  foot-prints  of  reptiles  in.  ii. 

231. 

,  vegetable  structure,!.  214. 

measures,  origin  of,  ii.  185. 

Cobblers,  i.  100. 

Cockburn,  Admiral,  i.  266. 

Cocoa-grass,  ii.  122. 

Cogswell,  Mr.,  ii.  250. 

Cold,  indifference  to,  ii.  21. 

Colored  race,  exclusiveness  of  whites 
toward,  ii.  52. 

Colored  servants,  i.  201. 

domestics,  ii.  72. 

Coluber  constrictor,  i.  112. 

Columbus,  ii.  35. 

Competition  of  negro  and  white  me 
chanics,  ii.  36. 

Complaint  of  the  Captive,  ii.  103. 

Concord,  town  of,  i.  90. 

Congregationalists,  i.  164. 

Consumption,  common  in  Maine,  i.  57. 

Converts  to  Rome,  i.  183. 

Coolies  in  W.  Indies,  i.  21. 

Copyright,  international,  ii.  253. 

Coral  reef,  fossil,  ii.  208. 

Cottagers  of  Glenburme,  ii.  168. 

Cotting,  Dr.  J.  Jd.,  ii.  27. 

Cotton,  ii.  130. 

Cotton-wood,  ii.  149,  176. 

Cotton  Mather  on  Day  of  Doom,  i.  49. 

Couper,  Mr.  Hamilton,  i.  244. 

Couthoy,  Captain,  i.  17. 

Cowley,  i.  157. 


INDEX. 


279 


Crackers,  i.  244. 

Creeds,  variations  in,  i.  166. 

Creek  Indians,  departure  of,  ii.  35. 

Creole  ladies,  ii.  93. 

Crescent  city,  ii.  106. 

Cretaceous  strata  near  Montgomery,  ii. 

41. 

Crevasses,  ii.  106. 
Crimes  among  negroes,  i.  266. 
Croton  water,  ii.  250. 

water- works,  i.  180. 

Cupressus  disticha,  i.  327;  ii.  191. 
Curfew  at  Montgomery,  ii.  42. 
Currents,  oceanic,  i.  17. 
Custom-house  officers,  i.  26. 
Cyperus  hydra,  ii.  122. 
Cypress  trees,  i.  244. 

roots,  ii.  185. 

knees,  ii.  139. 

deciduous,  age  of,  ii.  191. 


I). 


Dana,  i.  153. 

Darby  on  mud  of  Red  River,  ii.  192. 

Darien,  i.  243;  ii.  13. 

Darwin,  Mr  ,  i.  38,  258,  260. 

,  Pampean  formation,  i.  258. 

Date  palms,  i.  253;  ii.  109. 
Davy,  Sir  Humphrey,  ii.  269. 
Dawson,  J.  W.,  i.  108. 
Day  of  Doom,  poem,  i.  48. 
De  Candolle,  i.  247. 
Declaration  of  Independence,  i.  29. 
Decomposition  of  gneiss,  ii.  28. 
Decoy  pond,  i.  100. 
Delta  advance  of,  ii.  119.  - 

,  subsidence  of,  ii.  142. 

Democracy  and  Romanism,  ii.  218. 
Democrats,    coalition    of,    with    slave 
owners,  i.  82. 
Devil's  Punch  Bowl,  ii.  153. 

Swamp,  ii.  145. 

Dewey,  Dr.,  sermon  against  war,  ii.  257, 

Dickeson,  Dr.,  ii.  151,  191. 

Diplomatists  i.  203. 

Diron,  Sieur,  ii.  120. 

Dirt-eating,  ii.  17. 

Dissenters'  Chapels  Bill,  i.  167. 

Division  of  property,  i.  58. 

Divorced  man,  ii.  167. 

Dog-wood  in  Virginia,  ii.  244. 

Domestic  tea,  ii.  160. 

Donaldsonville,  ii.  99,  136. 

Dreissena,  ii.  107. 

Dressmakers,  i.  131. 

at  Boston,  i.  132. 


Drift,  Northern,  relative  age  of,  ii.  199. 
Drift-wood,  ii.  133. 
Driver,  black,  i.  265. 
Drunkenness  in  Alabama,  ii.  60,  77. 
Duelling,  new  law  against,  ii.  60. 
Dunbar,  Mr.,  ii.  120. 
Dwarf  firs,  i.  67. 


E. 


Eagle,  i.  233. 

Earthquake  at  New  Madrid,  ii.  174. 
Echo,  mountain,  i.  64. 
Education  of  ladies,  126. 
— ,  popular,  ii.  237,  238. 

,  secular,  i.  148. 

Educational  movement,  i.  151. 
Eldon,  Lord,  i.  90. 
Election,  i.  143. 

—  at  Boston,  i.  143. 
Electoral  franchise,  i.  195. 
Electric  telegraph,  i.  184,  185,  186. 
Elliot,  Dr..  i.  269. 

Ellis's  Cliffs,  ii.  149. 
Eloquence,  inflated,  i.  199. 
Emancipation,  effects  of,  ii.  83. 
Emigrants,  ii.  169. 

—  to  the  West,  ii.  63. 
Eminent  preachers,  i.  137. 
Emmons,  Dr.,  ii.  262. 
Engine  room,  i.  19. 
Engine,  revolutions  of,  i.  20 
Engines,  high  pressure,  ii.  45. 
English  newspapers,  ii.  170. 

—  pronunciation,  ii.  95. 
-  Turn,  ii.  122. 

Envy  in  a  democracy,  i.  84. 
Episcopal  churches,  i.  136. 

clergyman  in  steamer,  ii.  73. 

Episcopalian  asceticism,  i.  139. 
Equality,  ii.  169,  181. 

,  social,  i.  78. 

in  society,  ii.  64. 

Eulalie,  lake,  ii.  176. 
Evansville,  Indiana,  ii.  207. 
Everett,  Mr.,  i.  27. 

on  cheap  literature,  ii.  253. 

Eye-glass,  ii.  166. 


F. 

Factories,  Lowell,  i.  91. 

Fanaticism  of  New  England,  i.  78. 

Faneuil  Hall,  i.  27. 

Faraday,  Mr.,  ii.  268. 

Fashion  in  the  back  woods,  ii.  181. 


280 


INDEX. 


Fashionists,  ii.  22. 
Faulkner,  Mr.,  ii.  143. 
Fausse  Riviere,  ii.  143. 
Ferry  boat,  i.  31. 
Fire,  alarms  of,  i.  132. 
Fire-clays  of  coal,  ii.  185. 
Fires,  i.  219. 

at  New  York,  i.  180. 

Firs,  Dwarf,  i.  67. 

First  juvenile,  ii.  165. 

Fish,  fossil,  i.  33. 

Fissures  during  earthquake,  ii.  177. 

Flat  boats,  ii.  130,  131. 

Fleming,  Dr.,  i.  118. 

Fletcher,  Mr.,  ii.  180. 

Flint,  the  geographer,  ii.  175. 

Fog  off  Halifax,  ii.  271. 

Fogs,  ii.  135. 

on  river  Piscataqua,  i.  36. 

Fontania  ii.  143. 

Food  for  negroes,  i.  264. 

Forefather's  Day,  i.  95. 

Forest  scenery,  ii.  180. 

Forshey,  Mr.,  ii.  121,  137,  156,  184. 

Fort  Adams,  ii.  149. 

Jackson,  ii.  114. 

"  Forty-five  or  fight,"  ii.  227. 
Foot-prints,  fossil,  of  Greensburg,  ii.  228. 
Fossil-trees,  i.  212. 

human  bone,  ii.  151. 

remains,  i.  258. 

Fossils  in  drift,  i.  33. 

at  Gardiner,  i.  43. 

Fox,  Mr.,  i.  202. 
Franconia,  i.  86. 
Free  school,  i.  147. 

visit  to  a,  i.  147. 

schools,  i.  158. 

Free  trade  and  protectionism,  ii.  243. 

French  Creoles,  ii.  122. 

"  French  settlements,"  ii.  179. 

Fresh-water  loam,  ii.  149. 

Frost,  severe  at  Boston,  i.  24. 

Funeral  of  Northern  man,  ii.  23. 


Gale  off  Great  Bank,  i.  14. 
Gallatin,  Mr.,  on  Indian  corn,  ii.  255. 

• ,  on  Oregon  question,  ii.  255. 

Gallows  Hill,  i.  102. 

Gardenia,  ii.  153. 

Gardens  at  Mobile,  ii.  87. 

Gar-fish,  ii.  144. 

Gas,  explosion  of,  i.  215. 

Gas-works,  New  Orleans,  ii.  108. 

Geese,  i.  100, 


Gelasimus,  ii.  114. 
Gelsemium  nitidum,  ii.  145. 
General  Jackson's  log  cabin,  ii.  172. 
Geological  epoch  of  White  Mountains, 

i.  72. 
Geology,  prejudices  opposed  to,  ii.  236. 

of  Georgia,  ii.  18. 

round  Portsmouth,  i.  33. 

,  Alabama,  ii.  75. 

Georgia,  Bishop  of,  i.  269. 
German  baker,  ii.  172. 

baker's  wife,  ii.  181. 

Germans  in  Cincinnati,  ii.  218. 

Gertrude  of  Wyoming,  ii.  240. 

Giant's  Grave,  i.  65. 

Grammer  school  for  boys,  i.  148. 

Gravel  terraces,  ii.  244. 

Gifford,  Mr.  A.  F.,  i.  211,  217  ;  ii.  245. 

Gist,  Dr.,  ii.  160. 

Glacial  grooves,  i.  36. 

Glynn  county,  i.  271. 

Gnathodon,  ii.  118. 

cuneatus,  ii.  107. 

Gneiss,  decomposition  of,  ii.  28. 
Goldfuss,  Professor,  on  reptiles  in  coal, 

ii.  235. 

Goldsmith,  Vicar  of  Wakefield,  ii.  237. 
Gordonia  pubescens,  i.  261. 
Governesses,  i.  223. 
Governor's  lady,  ii.  26. 
Grand  Gulf,  ii.  157. 
Greenland  subsidence  of,  ii.  144, 
Greensburg,  Pennsylvania,  ii.  227. 
Gulf  of  Mexico  shells,  ii.  86. 
Gum  tree,  i.  247. 


II. 


Hale,  Sir  Mathew,  i.  102. 
Half  breeds,  i.  106. 
Halifax,  i.  22. 

,  lighthouse,  ii.  272. 

Hall,  Captain  Basil,  ii.  103. 

,  Mr.  James,  ii.  262. 

Halsydrus  Pontoppidani,  i.  116. 

Hand  car  on  railway,  ii.  18. 

Harlanus  Americanus,  i.  258. 

Harpers'  printing  establishment,  ii.  250. 

Harrisburg,  ii.  241. 

Hawkes,  Dr.,  ii.  103. 

Hay,  vessels  laden  with,  i.  42. 

Hayes,  Mr.  J.  L.,  i.  32,  35. 

Head,  Sir  Francis,  ii.  267. 

Health  in  New  England,  i.  124. 

inU.  S.,  i.  124. 

Heavenly  witnesses,  i.  170. 
Helderberg  war,  ii.  260. 


INDEX. 


281 


Hitchcock,  Professor,  i.  18. 
Hockmar  or  shark,  i.  117. 
Hogarth's  Election  Feast,  172. 
Home,  Sir  Everard,  116. 
Hooker,  Dr.  Joseph,  i.  38  ;  ii.  273. 
Horticultural  show,  i.  27. 
Hospitality  in  South,  i.  245. 
Hotel,  St.'  Louis,  at  New  Orleans. 

91. 

Hotels,  Boston,  i.  122. 
House  of  Commons,  i.  199. 
Howe,  Dr..  i.  133. 
Hoyt,  Jesse,  letters  of,  ii.  261 
Huguenots,  ii.  124. 
Humboldt,  ii.  174. 

Humming-bird,  migration  of,  ii.  247. 
Hunter,  Mr.,  ii.  177. 
Hurst  Castle,  i.  94. 
Hydrarchos,  ii.  65. 


Ice  of  Wenham  Lake,  ii.  268. 

— ,  antarctic,  inclosing  whale,  i.  38. 
Iceberg,  i.  16. 
Icebergs,  i.  39. 

,  rocks  transported  by,  ii.  273. 

,  danger  of  collison  with,  ii.  274. 

,  drifting  of,  i.  18. 

011  homeward  voyage,  ii.  273 

Iberville  River,  ii.  136. 
Illegitimate  children,  i.  271. 
Immersion  in  baptism,  i.  269. 
Income  tax,  i.  193. 
Independence  day,  i.  144. 
Independents,  i.  168. 
India  tree,  pi'ide  of.  i.  219,  231. 
Indian  blood,  ii.  169. 

carvings  of  foot-prints,  ii.  234. 

mound,  Wheeling,  ii.  224. 

mounds,  ii.  15. 

mounds  near  Macon,  ii.  22. 

corn,  uncertain  crop,  ii.  64. 

shell  mound,  i.  252. 

Indiana,  fossil  erect  trees  in  coal  strata, 

ii.  205. 

Inflated  oratory,  ii.  99. 
Initial  letters,  i,  142. 
Inns  of  Southern  States,  ii.  57. 
Inquisitiveness,  ii.  167. 
Inundations,  ii.  132. 
Ipswich,  i.  126. 
Irish  repeal  meeting,  i.  146,  147. 

voters,  i.  189. 

servants,  ii.  98. 

emigrants,  i.  145,  146. 

Island  Eighty  four,  ii.  164. 


Jackson,  ii.  159. 

,  hotel  at,  ii.  160. 

,  Dr.  John,  ii.  270. 

Jealousy  of  wealth,  ii.  61. 

Jefferson  College,  ii.  134. 

Jeffrey,  Lord,  works  reprinted  in  U.  S. 

ii.  226. 

Johnson  on  Milton,  i.  157. 
Judas-tree,  ii.  153. 
Judges  at  Tuscaloosa,  ii.  74. 

cashiered,  ii.  101. 

elected,  ii.  162. 

Julian  calendar,  i.  172. 
Juniata  River,  ii.  240. 


K. 


Kean,  Mr.  and  Mrs.,  ii.  95. 

,  Mrs.,  ii.  165. 

Kendall,  Captain,  i.  38. 

Kenebec  river,  i.  42. 

King,  Dr.,  on  fossil  footprints  in  coal 

strata,  ii.  229. 
Kingfisher,  i.  247. 
Koch,  i.  107. 


L. 


Ladies,  educated,  i.  126. 

'  ordinary,  ii.  96. 

Laing,  Malcolm,  i.  115,  116. 
Lake  Solitude,  ii.  143,  144. 

Pontchartrain,  ii.  90,  106,  107. 

Concordia,  ii.  155. 

Eulalie,  ii.  176. 

Lalaurie,  Madame,  ii.  127. 
Land  tortoises,  ii.  220. 

—  quadrupeds,  chiefly  nocturnal)  ii. 
250. 

crabs,  ii.  114. 

Landed  proprietors,  i.  58. 
Landslip,  ii.  141. 
Language,  i.  128 

— ,  peculiarities  of,  i.  128,  129. 
Laura  Bridgeman,  i.  133. 
Law  against  black  mechanics,  ii.  81. 
Lay  teachers,  i.  173. 
Le  Conte,  Dr..  i.  237. 
Lectures,  i.  153. 
Leg  "bitten  off,"  ii.  167. 
Legal  profession,  i.  45. 
Legislators,  paid,  i.  84. 
Legislature  of  Louisiana,  ii.  99. 
Lending  libraries,  i.  154. 


282 


INDEX. 


Lepidosteus,  ii.  144. 

Levee,  New  Orleans,  ii.  105. 

Levees,  artificial,  ii.  133. 

Leveling  up  and  down,  ii.  169. 

Leyden    Street,  i.  96. 

Liberia,  ii.  241. 

Liebig,  i.  247. 

Lightning,  i.  236. 

Lighthouse,  Halifax,  guns  fired  at,  ii.  272. 

Lighthouse  near  Mobile,  ii.  84. 

Lightwood,  i.  220. 

Lignite,  ii.  176. 

Linnaea  borealis,  i.  64. 

Literary  clerk  of  Steamer,  ii.  147. 

tastes,  i.  130. 

Little  Prairie,  ii.  174. 
Live  oaks,  i.  238. 
Liverpool,  landing  at,  ii.  275. 

,  voyage  from,  i.  13. 

Living,  cost  of  at  Boston,  i.  131. 
Loam,  ii.  171. 

or  loess,  ii.  159. 

Loblolly  pine,  i.  236. 
Loess,  ii.  150. 

Long  Island  Railway,  ii.  265. 
Louisiana,  ii.  123. 

,  loess  of,  ii.  192. 

Louisville,  Kentucky,  ii,  210 
Love,  Mr.,  ii.  178. 
Lowell  Factories,  i.  91. 
Loxia  cardinalis,  i.  247: 
Luxury  of  New  Orleans,  ii.  100. 
Luzenberger,  Dr.,  i.  251. 
Lynch  Law  in  Florida,  ii.  31. 


M. 


Maoaulay'sHistory.saleof,  in  U.S.,  ii.252. 
Maclarty,  Mrs.,  ii.  168. 
Macon,  Georgia,  ii.  22. 

— ,  Alabama,  ii.  58. 
M'Connell,  i.  147. 
M'Cormac,  Dr.,  ii.  106. 
Madam,  use  of  term,  i.  129. 
M'llvaine,  Mr.  William,  i.  113. 
Mackenzie  letters,  ii.  261. 
Maclean,  Rev.  Donald,  i.  117. 
M'Quhae,  Captain,  i.  120. 
Magnolia  steamer,  ii.  129,  158. 
Mai,  Cardinal,  i.  171. 
Mallotus,  i.  33. 
Mammoth  ravine,  ii.  151. 
Man  shot  in  a  brawl,  ii.  31. 
Manchester,  i.  91. 
Manners,  familliar,  ii.  166. 
Marriage  between  colored  and  white,  ii. 

215. 


Marriages  in  Boston,  i.  127. 

,  early,  i.  127. 

Marine  shells,  i.  94. 
Market  at  New  Orleans,  ii.  104. 
Marsh  blackbird,  i.  245. 
Martineau,  Miss,  ii.  127. 
Martins  killed  by  storm,  i.  36. 
Mastodon,  skeletons  of,  ii.  269. 

,  food  of,  ii.  270. 

Maximilian,  Prince,  ii.  203. 
Mayflower,  i.  95. 

,  table  of,  i.  98. 

Medical  students,  ii.  211. 
Megatherium,  i.  258. 
Melville,  Dr.,  i.  119. 
Memphis,  ii.  171. 
Mendicity,  i.  255. 
Merigomish,  i.  108. 
Merrimack  River,  i.  91. 
Metairie  ridge,  ii.  108. 
Methodist  church,  black,  ii.  213. 

prayer  meetings,  i.  270. 

church,  Montgomery,  ii.  213. 

sermon,  i.  88. 

Mexico,  war  with,  ii.  256. 

Michaud  on  the  age  of  cypress,  ii.  191. 

Migration  of  plants,  i.  70. 

Mill  Creek,  geology  of,  ii.  219. 

Milledgeville,  ii.  25. 

Millerite  Movement,  i.  75. 

Mississsipi,  banks  of,  ii.  163. 

River,  ii.  105. 

water,  ii.  158. 

coast,  ii.  129. 

bank  caving  in,  ii.  173. 

delta  of,  ii.  183. 

sediment,  ii.  121. 

age  of  delta,  ii.  187. 
Missouri,  slavery  in,  ii.  182. 
Mixture  of  races,  i.  271. 
Mob  of  Gentlemen,  i.  222. 
Mobile  built  on  bed  of  shells,  ii.  86. 

,  gardens  at,  ii.  87. 

Mocking  birds,  ii.  181. 
Montgomery,  journey  to,  ii.  37,  41. 
Mormons,  i.  77. 

—  and  Stephanists,  ii.  51. 
Morals  of  Puritans,  i.  127. 
Morlot  on  Subsidence  in  Adriatic,  ii.  187. 
Morse,  i.  186. 

Geography,  ii.  251. 

Moss,  Spanish,  i.  220. 
Mount  Auburn,  i.  135. 

Vernon,  ii.  200. 

Washington,  i.  66. 

Mountains  of  New  Hampshire,  i.  59. 

Movers"  to  Texas,  ii.  55,  88. 
Mud  cracks,  casts  of,  ii.  231. 


INDEX. 


283 


Mulattoes,  i.  271. 
Museum,  Salem,  i.  99. 
Musk  rats,  ii.  179. 

,  habitations  of,  ii.  240. 

Musquitoes,  ii.  97,  136. 

N. 

Nahant,  i.  113. 

Napoleon  ii.  164. 

Natchez,  country  houses*  ii.  153. 

,  ii.  149. 

,  tornado,  ii.  152. 

National  fair  at  Washington,  ii.  242. 
Nativism,  i.  190. 
Naval  arsenal,  ii.  171. 
Names  of  Negroes,  i.  263. 
Negro  Baptists,  ii.  14. 

brain,  i.  105. 

houses,  i.  249,  263. 

—  episcopal  clergyman,  ii.  243. 

prayer,  ii.  15. 

hospital,  i.  264. 

slaves,  ii.  34. 

children,  ii.  24. 

maid  servants,  i.  255. 

names,  i.  263. 

porters,  i.  243, 

preacher,  Louisville,  ii.  214. 

intelligence,  ii.  16. 

and  white  mechanics,  ii.  36. 

• shot  by  an  overseer,  ii.  78. 

instruction,  i.  208. 

mistaken  for  white,  ii.  165. 

Negroes,  i.  224. 

,  civilization  of,  ii.  80. 

,  emancipation  of,  i.  21. 

,  increase  of,  ii.  79. 

,  in  Louisana,  ii.  126. 

,  in  mines,  i.  216. 

,  intelligence  of,  ii.  19. 

,  kindness  to,  i.  210. 

,  more  progressive  in  upper  country, 

ii.  19. 

on  sale,  ii.  125. 

,  position  of,  in  the  South,  ii.  82. 

,  prejudice  against,  i.  221. 

,  progress  of,  i.  268  ;  ii.  71. 

,  runaway,  i.  221. 

,  treatment  of,  ii.  78. 

Neill,  Mr.,  i.  115. 
New  Albany,  ii.  208. 
New  Harmony,  ii.  202. 
New  Jersey,  i.  191. 
New  London,  ii.  265. 
New  Madrid,  ii.  172. 

,  departure  from,  ii.  200. 

earthquake,  ii.  174. 


New  Orleans,  French  appearance  of,  ii. 

)0. 

-,  Hotel  St.  Louis,  ii.  91. 

-,  Catholic  cathedral,  ii.  93. 

-,  theaters,  ii.  95. 

-,  tombs  at,  ii.  96. 

— ,  shops  at,  ii.  96. 

-,  Ladies'  ordinary,  ii.  96. 

— ,  procession  at,  ii.  96. 

,  Salubrity  of,  ii.  97. 

Newberne,  i.  259. 
Newfoundland,  i.  19. 
New  Haven,  i.  179. 
Newman,  Mr.,  i.  183. 
Newsboys,  ii.  40. 
Newspaper  press,  ii.  41. 
Newspapers,  i.  55. 

— ,  distribution  of,  i.  26. 

• ,  from  England,  ii.  170. 

New  York,  gay  dresses  in,  ii.  248. 

— ,  omnibuses  in,  ii.  249. 

— ,  naming  of  streets,  ii.  249. 
Nicol,  Mr.  J.,  ii.  189. 
North  and  South  split,  i.  270. 
Northern  prices,  ii.  98. 
Norton,  Mr.,  i.  137. 
Nothingarians,  i.  139. 
Novels,  sale  of  by  Newsboys,  ii.  41. 
Nuttall,  i.  259. 


O. 

Oak,es,Mr.  William,  i.  64;  ii.  266. 

Obion,  ii.  180. 

Observatory,  Cincinati,  ii.  220. 

Ocmulgee  River,  i.  256 ;  ii.  23. 

Oconee  River,  i.  256. 

Oglethorpe,  i.  253. 

"  Old  Virginia,"  i.  268. 

Omnibuses  in  New  York,  ii.  249. 

Oolitic  coal,  i.  212. 

Opossum,  ii.  17. 

Oregon  ii.  170. 

,  war  about,  i.  232. 

Organic  remains  in  ice,  i.  37. 
Oscillation  of  level,  ii.  198. 
Ostracism  of  wealth,  i.  82. 
Owen,  Professor,  i.  44. 

,  Mr.,  i.  105. 

,  Robert,  of  Lanark,  ii.  203. 

Oxenstiern,  i.  86. 
Oysters,  i.  233. 

P. 

Pacific,  whale  fishery  in,  ii.  265. 
Palenque,  i.  202. 


284 


INDEX. 


Palisades,  i.  191. 

Palmetto,  i.  235. 

Parker,  Theodore,  i.  184. 

Patent  Office,  i.  201. 

Pauperism,  absence  of,  i.  145. 

Peace  Association,  i.  28. 

Pearl  River  fossils,  ii.  160. 

Peltier,  i.  227. 

Peltries,  ii.  179. 

Pemigewasset  River,  i.  87,  88. 

Pendlefcon,  Capt.  Benj.,  i.  37. 

Pere  Antoine,  ii.  110. 

Perkins,  Colonel,  i.  97,  112. 

Peytona  steamer,  ii.  157. 

Philadelphia,  ii.  241. 

Physical  science,  i.  169. 

Pilgrim  relics,  i.  96. 

Pilgrim  fathers,  names  of,  i.  95. 

Pilots,  ii.  118,  173. 

Pine-trees,  age  of,  ii.  37. 

Pine-barrens  want  of  elbow-room  in,  ii. 

21. 

Pinus  taeda,  i.  237. 
Piscataqua  River,  i.  36. 
Pittsburg,  fire  at,  ii.  225. 
Place-hunter,  disappointed,  ii.  31. 
Placentia  Bay,  ii.  272. 
Planters,  i.  245,  261. 
Plants,  i.  53. 

Alpine,  i.  69. 

at  New  Orleans,  ii.  107. 

in  Virginia,  ii.  244. 

migrations  of,  i.  70. 

near  Saratoga,  ii.  263. 

spring  flowers  of  Indiana,  ii.  203. 

wild,  N.  Hampshire,  i.  34. 

Plassy,  ii.  122. 

Pledges  at  elections,  i.  85. 
Plymouth  Beach,  i.  94. 

,  Massachusetts,  i.  93. 

• ,  New  Hampshire,  i.  86. 

Politics  in  Massachusetts,  i.  143. 

Polk,  i.202. 

Pontoppidan,  i.  110. 

Popular  education,  i.  155;  ii.  237. 

• instruction,  i.  175. 

Populus  angulata,  ii.  149,  176. 
Pork  merchant,  ii.  207. 
Porpoises,  i.  15. 
Person,  i.  170. 

Port  Hudson,  ii.  129,  137,  180. 
Portland  in  Maine,  i.  41,  46. 
Portsmouth,  N.  Hampshire,  i.  32. 
Post-office  abuses,  i.  90. 
Potter,  Bishop,  i.  91. 
Preachers,  eminent,  i.  137. 
Prejudices  opposed  to  geology,  ii.  236. 
Preston,  Mr.,  ii.  135. 


Primogeniture,  opinion  of,  i.  58. 

Proclamation  of  Thanksgiving  Day,  i. 
144. 

Procession  at  New  Orleans,  ii.  96. 

Protectionist  doctrines,  i.  127. 

Protracted  meetings  at  Montgomery,  ii. 

43. 

|  Pond,  Mr.,  ii.  35. 
i  Powers  the  sculptoi',  ii.  222. 
!  Public  meetings,  want  of,  i.  143. 

Purgstall,  Countess,  ii.  103. 

Puritans,  i.  47,  127. 


a. 

Quadroons,  ii.  94,  165. 
Quadrupeds,  extinction  of,  i.  259. 
Quicksand,  Plymouth,  i.  95. 
Q,uincy,  i.  93. 

R, 

Races,  mixture  of,  i.  271. 
Raccourci  cut-off,  ii.  148. 
Railway  cars,  i.  30;  ii.  38. 

traveling,  i.  31. 

Railways,  i.  178. 

in  U.  S.,  ii.  264. 

i  Rattle-snakes,  i.  228. 
Ravine  near  Milledgeville,  ii.  29. 
Ravines,  modern,  ii.  28. 
Recruiting  in  U.  S.,  facility  of,  ii.  257. 
Red-bird,  i.  247. 
Red  maple,  ii.  145. 
Red  River,  red  mud  of,  ii.  149,  192. 
Redfield,  Mr.,  i.  17. 
Reelfoot,  ii.  180. 
Relics,  authenticity  of,  i.  98. 
Religion  and  politics,  i.  140. 

,  progress  in,  i.  162. 

Religious  toleration,  i.  47. 

Rennie,  Mr.  G-.,  ii.  189. 

Repeal  of  English  corn  laws,  ii.  32. 

meeting,  i.  146. 

Reptile,    fossil,    air-breathing,    in    coal 

strata,  ii.  234. 
Repudiation,  i.  193. 
Revival  at  Bethlehem,  i.  73  ;  ii.  16. 
Rice  plantations,  i.  262. 
Richmond,  i.  205. 

coal-field,  i.  211. 

Riddell,  Dr..  ii.  107. 

— ,  on  sediment  of  Mississipi,  ii.  187. 
Rise  of  Sweden,  ii.  194. 
River- fogs,  ii.  113,  114. 
Robin  drunk  with  berries,  ii.  55. 
Robinson,  Pastor,  i.  162. 


INDEX. 


285 


Rogers,  Prof.  W.  B.,  i.  206,  211. 
Roman  law,  ii.  98. 

—  Catholics,  i.  177. 
Romanism  and  democracy,  ii.  218. 
Ross,  Sir  James,  i.  17,  39  ;  ii.  273. 
Rotation  of  trees,  i.  246. 
Ruggles,  Mr.:  ii.  188. 


S. 


Saco,  valley  of  the,  i.  63. 
Sailing,  rate  of,  i.  20. 
Salem  Museum,  i.  100. 
Salt  marshes,  i.  249. 
Salubrity  of  New  Orleans,  ii.  97. 
San  Francisco,  ii.  265. 
Sand-bursts,  ii.  176. 
Saratoga,  plants  near,  ii.  263. 
Savage,  Mr.,  i.  99. 
Savannah,  i.  234 ;  ii.  13. 
Schlegel,  A.  W.,  Prof.,  ii.  213. 
Schools,  common,  i.  54. 

iu  New  York,  i.  187. 

Scoliophys  atlanticus,  i.  112. 
Sea-serpent,  Norwegian,  i.  107,  108, 113. 

— ,  Cape  Ann,  i.  111. 
Section,    geological,    from    Darien    to 

Vicksburg,  ii.  196. 
Sects,  equality  of,  i.  47. 
Secular  education,  i.  188. 
Sellick,  Captain,  ii.  139. 
Sensitiveness,  American,  i.  131. 
Servants,  i.  125,  263  ;  ii.  167. 

,  position  of,  i.  81. 

,  scarcity  of,  ii.  227. 

Shark,  basking,  i.  118. 
Shells,  i.  254. 

on  shore  of  Gulf  of  Mexico,  ii.  85. 

Shell-road,  ii.  107. 
Shepard,  Professor,  i.  229. 
Shock  of  earthquake,  ii.  178. 
Shops  at  New  Orleans,  ii.  96. 
Shrike,  i.  247. 

Sidell  on  Mississippi,  ii.  189. 
Silicified  shells  and  corals,  ii.  24. 
Silliman,  Professor,  i.  179. 
Sink-holes,  ii.  175. 
Skiddaway,  i.  234. 

Slave,  marriage  of,  with  white,    Ken 
tucky,  ii.  216. 
Slave  labor,  i.  207  ;  ii.  72. 

States,  i.  231. 

dealers,  i.  209. 

whip,  i.  265. 

,  runaway,  ii.  38. 

Slaves,  sale  of,  Macon,  ii.  59. 
Belling  at  Montgomery,  ii.  42. 


Slave-trade,  i.  232  ;  ii.  241. 
Slave-dealer  on  steamer,  ii.  90. 
Slavery,  i.  241,  261. 

— ,  in  Southern  States,  ii.  79. 
— ,  party  against  extension,  i.  143. 
Smith  Sydney,  ii.  15. 
Smoke,  absence  of,  i.  188. 
Snag-boats,  ii.  133. 
Snake  and  dog,  ii.  245. 
Snapping  turtle,  ii.  156. 
Soap,  home  made,  ii.  26. 
Social  equality,  i.  80. 
Southern  steamboat,  ii.  44. 
planters'  superior  political  tact,  i. 

81. 

Spanish  moss,  i.  243  ;  ii.  104. 
Species,  creation  of,  i.  228. 
Specific  centers,  theory  of  i.  71. 
Spiritual  boulanger,  i.  270. 
Split  north  and  south,  i.  270, 
Spoilt  children,  ii.  168. 
Squalus  maximus,  i.  116. 
Squirrels,  i.  227. 
Stage-coach,  ii.  239. 

from  Macon  to  Columbus,  ii.  35. 

Stage-traveling,  ii.  24. 
j  State  debts,  ii.  56. 

education,  i.  148. 

Statehouse  at  Jackson,  ii.  161. 
Steamboats,  ii.  46. 
Steamboat  passengers,  ii.  49. 

collision  with  trees,  ii.  48. 

accidents,  ii.  111. 

Steamer  in  Maine,  i.  41. 

Steamer  to  Tuscaloosa,  ii.  67. 

Steamers  safest  in  storms,  i.  14. 

Steam  ships,  ii.  105. 

Stephanists,  ii.  50. 

Stewardess,  German,  ii.  50. 

Storer,  Dr.,  on  fish,  i.  156. 

Story,  Judge,  i.  22. 

Stoves,  i.  178. 

Stronsa  animal,  i.  115. 

St.  Charles  Hotel,  New  Orleans,  ii.  105. 

St.  Francis  River,  ii.  174. 

St.  Mary's  Hall,  i.  192. 

St.  Rosalie,  ii.  154. 

St.  Simon's  Island,  i.  252,  253. 

Submarine  forest,  i.  34. 

Subsidence  of  Delta  of  Mississippi,  ii. 

142. 

Subsidence  of  land,  i.  33. 
Sumner,  Mr.  Charles,  i.  28. 
Sunday  schools  for  negroes,  ii.  215. 
Supreme  Court,  i.  20. 

Courts,  i.  46. 

Swallows  at  Portsmouth,  i.  35. 
Swamp  rabbit,  i.  228. 


286 


INDEX. 


Swamps  of  Mississipi,  ii.  184. 
Sweden,  rise  of,  ii.  194. 


T. 


Tabernacle  at  Boston,  i.  76. 

Taconic  system  of  rocks,  age  of,  ii.  263. 

Tapir,  fossil,  in  Texas,  ii.  197. 

Tariff;  i.  192. 

Tasso,  love  and  madness,  ii.  102. 

Taxodium  distichum,  ii.  148. 

Teachers,  pay  of,  i.  149. 

,  position  of,  i.  150. 

,  their  social  position,  i.  150. 

Telescope,  i.  156 
Temperance  hotel,  i.  54. 

hotels,  i.  122. 

Ten  Hour  Bill,  ii.  225. 

Tennessee,  ii.  180. 

Terraces,  succession  of,  i.  257. 

,  of  gravel,  ii.  224. 

Texas,  i.  196. 

Texas,  fossil  bones  in,  ii.  197. 

Volunteers,  ii.  271. 

Thanksgiving  day,  i.  144. 
Theater  at  New  Orleans,  ii.  95. 

in  Boston,  i.  153. 

Theological  discussion,  i.  89. 

colleges,  i.  174. 

Thermometer  low  at  Tuscaloosa,  ii.  84. 
Third   House,     thanks,    voted    to,     at 

Albany,  ii.  260. 

Three  Heavenly  Witnesses,  i.  170. 
Tillandsia,  i.  243  ;  ii.  104. 

usneoides,  i.  220. 

Timber  trade,  i.  42. 
Tobacco,  chewing  of,  ii.  266. 
Tombeckbee  River,  ii.  68. 
Tombs  at  New  Orleans,  ii.  96. 
Tortoises,  i.  229. 

,  land,  ii.  220. 

Tractarians,  i.  183. 
Trapper,  ii.  179. 
Traveling  roads,  bad,  ii.  70. 

,  rough,  ii.  35. 

— ,  New  England,  rate  of,  i.  41. 
Trees,  rotation  of,  i.  246. 

on  banks  of  Kennebec,  i.  43. 

and  plants,  i.  63. 

on  banks  of  river,  ii.  41. 

.fossil,  erect,  of  coal,  Indiana,  ii.  204. 

Trinity  Church,  i.  182. 
Turkey  buzzards,  i.  229. 
Tuscaloosa  judges,  ii.  75. 

,  acquaintances  at,  ii.  73. 

,  college  of  ii.  68. 

,  churches  at,  ii.  73. 


V. 


Unio  spinosus,  i.  248. 
Unitarian  Church,  i.  47. 

congregations,  i.  136. 

Unitarians,  i.  136. 

,  cause  of  their  influence,  ii.  258. 

Universal  suffrage,  i.  85. 
University  at  Louisville,  ii.  211. 
Upotoy  Creek,  ii.  35. 


V. 


Vanessa  atalanta,  ii.  220. 
Vegetation  near  Tuscaloosa,  ii.69. 

of  Gulf  of  Mexico,  ii.  84. 

of  Mount  Washington,  i.  66. 

Vicksburg,  ii.  159,  163. 

Vidalia,  ii.  155. 

Vine,  cultivation  of,  ii.  221. 

Virginia,  i.  206. 

Vitreous  tubes  at  Areola,  ii.  76. 

Vote  by  ballot,  ii.  162. 

Voters,  bribery  of,  ii.  16. 

Voyage  from  Mobile  to  New  Orleans,  ii. 

88. 
Voyage  to  Mobile,  ii.  66. 


W. 

Wailes,  Colonel,  ii.  151. 

Walhalla,  i.  131. 

Wandering   Jew,  by  Eugene    Sue,  ii. 

253. 
Wandering  Jew,  great  sale  of,  ii.  253. 

,  tendency  of  the  work,  ii.  254, 

War,  demonstration  against,  ii.  271. 

panic,  i.  224. 

,  preaching  against,  ii.  257. 

spirit  abating,  ii.  32. 

with  England,  i.  81,  242  ;  ii.  57. 

with  Mexico,  ii.  256. 

Warren,  Dr.,  ii.  270. 
Washington,  i.  196,  200 ;  ii.  150. 

,  Mount,  i.  66. 

Museum,  i.  201. 

,  national  fair  at,  ii.  243. 

Wealth,  ostracism  of,  i.  82. 
Webster,  Mr.,  i.  141,  199. 

,  Daniel,  i.  141. 

Wenham  Lake  ice,  ii.  268. 
West  Point,  ii.  169. 
Weymouth,  East,  i.  99. 
Whale  discovered  in  iceberg,  i.  38. 

fishery  in  Pacific,  ii.  265. 

Wheatland,  Dr.,  i.  100. 


INDEX. 


287 


Wheatstone,  i.  186. 
Wheeling  Indian  mound,  ii.  224. 
"Whig  Caucus,  i.  141. 
White,  Blanco,  i.  184. 

Mountains,  i.  30. 

,  age  of,  i.  72. 

,  Peregrine,  i.  96. 

Water,  ii.  179. 

Wilde,  Mr.,  ii.  129. 

,  Richard  Henry,  ii.  98. 

Wilde's  poetry,  ii.  103. 
Wilkes,  Captain,  i.  39. 
Willey  Slide,  i.  61. 
"Willows  on  Mississippi,  ii.  115. 
Wilmington,  i.  218. 
Winthrop,  i.  185,  196,  197,  200. 
Witches,  i.  102. 
,  Salem,  i.  101. 


"Wood,  cords  of,  ii.  135. 
Woodpecker  boring  trees,  ii.  202. 
Woolly  hair,  ii.  166. 
Wyman,  Dr.,  excursion  with,  ii.  245. 


Y. 

Yandell,  Dr.;  ii.  211. 
Yellow  fever,  ii.  87, 102. 
jessamine,  ii.  145. 


Z. 

Zeuglodon,  bones  of,  ii.  18. 

in  Alabama,  ii.  65. 

Zoology,  i.  288. 


THE    END. 


